360 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 21, 



is a perfect specimen of the " dome-shaped fossil" figured by Lindley 

 and Hutton, and in reality a Sigillaria of the same species as that 

 just described, whose stem has been broken off near the root, the 

 hollow cylinder of bark ha\'ing, after the decay of the lax cellular 

 tissue, been bent do\\Ti and doubled over by the pressure of the accu- 

 mulating mud outside, so as effectually to close up the aperture, 

 leaving only a few irregular cicatrices of three or four inches in length 

 converging at the apex. The whole fossil was covered with a thin 

 bark of coal which soon crumbled off, and exposed leaf-scars scattered 

 at random over the sides, but arranged in double rows near the 

 summit. If this stem had been broken off three inches lower down, 

 none of the double rows of scars would have been visible ; the scat- 

 tered single scars would then have precisely corresponded with the 

 "indistinct dots" in Lindley and Hutton's fossil. 



Fortunately about one-half of the roots were collected from the 

 roof of the coal after the truncated stump had fallen down ; they 

 cannot be distinguished from the roots of the tree represented in 

 fig. 1 . The underside or base of the stump is in like manner divided 

 into four quarters, each of which ramifies twice, thus making sixteen 

 main roots, from each of which a tap root descends perpendicularly. 

 The sixteen main roots are again subdivided, and a second set of tap 

 roots shoot off from them ; in short, the resemblance to the first de- 

 scribed tree is so perfect in every feature, except the accidental closing 

 up of the stem, that it is quite unnecessary to repeat the description 

 already given of that fossil. Judging from the length and position 

 of the cicatrices at the apex where the bark has been squeezed to- 

 gether, the diameter of the stem must have been about ten inches. 

 Its position with respect to the underlying coal was precisely analo- 

 gous to that of the first tree. 



The roots of the preceding fossils repeatedly ramify as their distance 

 from the stem increases, and ultimately terminate in broad flattened 

 points. The w^hole of the spreading roots of these trees cover only 

 an area of thirty square feet each, whilst the roots of the Lepidoden- 

 dron figured in vol. iv. p. 46 of this Journal, whose stem is only two 

 or three inches larger in diameter, covered an area of two hundred 

 square feet. Since it is well known, from numerous examples, that 

 the Lepidodendra were lofty trees with spreading branches, which 

 required wide supporting bases, may we not reasonably conclude that 

 Sigillariae of the species described, judging from their comparatively 

 small bases, were on the contrary trees of low stature, without heavy 

 branches ? 



2. Notice of Researches in Asia Minor. 

 By M. Pierre de Tchihatcheff. 



[Extract of a letter to Sir Roderick T. Murchison, F.R.S., V.P.G.S., &c. &c., dated 



Paris, February 26, 1849.] 



It is a month since I arrived in Paris from Constantinople, after an 

 absence of two years and a half in Asia Minor. Though some por- 

 tions of my scientific collections were unfortunately lost, still the re- 



