328 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Mr Clarke the tree was unfortunately reduced to its present length 

 to suit the dimensions of the embrasure at the side of the building. 

 The fossil remains consist of the nearly completely flattened impres- 

 sion of the trunk, on a portion of which the carbonized cortex still 

 lies. The matrix is a very fine grained blue shale. 



The specimen is so important on account of the varying cortical 

 features, some of which suggest most interesting relations to several 

 groups of the upper Paleozoic Lepidophytes, as to merit description 

 in more than usual detail. 



Description of the trunk 



In pointing out the characters presented by the Naples trunk 

 attention will be given, in order, to (a) the rootlets; (b) the gen- 

 eral features of the cortical topography including the form and 

 relations of the leaf cushions or bolsters, which will be seen to 

 combine forms characteristic of both Lepidodendron and Sigillaria; 

 (c) the phyllotaxy; {d) the leaf scar, which illustrates a type 

 peculiar to the Devonic and Lower Carbonic (Mississippian) Lepi- 

 dophytes; and {e) the leaves. The general form, nomenclature and 

 systematic classification of the tree will be considered later. 



The aspect of the trunk as a whole is shown in the photograph 

 one eighth the natural size, plate i.^ In the following plate dia- 

 gram, plate 2, are shown the areas selected for illustration in natural 

 size to indicate the details of various portions of the specimen. 



As now mounted the basal section of the trunk, which is dilated 

 like that of the roy^ palm, is 38.5 cm in width, while the width 

 at the broken top is but 12 cm. The length is 338 cm. 



Rootlets. The area imperfectly shown, natural size, in plate 3, 

 figure I, includes a portion of the lower periphery of the butt of 

 the tree from which fragments of long ribbonlike rootlets stream 

 downward. These rootlets, portions only of which are disclosed, 

 are articulated at large areolate umbilicoid scars, a number of which, 

 like those shown in figures 3 and 4 on the same plate, are still 

 exposed though mostly somewhat distorted by pressure. These 

 cicatrices (X) show the outer ring, corresponding to the attachment 

 of the cortex, the inner ring representing the nerve sheath and the 

 nerve trace itself. The similarity of these scars to the typical scar 

 of Stigmaria will at once be recognized; and it may be added that 



lOn account of the size and position of the specimen it is impracticable to photograph the 

 fossil as a whole. The trunk was first photographed in sections, natural size, and the latter 

 were joined and then photographed as shown in plate i. 



Unfortunately the fossil lies in natural illumination from the right, so that the topography is 

 reversed. The reader is therefore asked constantly to bear in mind that the light is from the 

 right in all figures not specifically designated as otherwise illuminated. 



