184'5.] BUNBURY ON FOSSIL FERNS. 89 



tification of ferns was destroyed by long immersion in water ; and 

 he seems to consider this as an important corroboration of the just- 

 ness of his views. He speaks * of " the very remarkable fact, that 

 ferns are scarcely ever met with in fructification in a fossil state ;" 

 and if this were a fact, it would certainly be in accordance with the 

 result of his experiment. But it is now known that the occurrence 

 of the fructification of ferns in a fossil state is by no means so rare 

 as that distinguished botanist supposed. It is shown in the present 

 paper, that out of nine fossil ferns observed by Mr. Lyell at Frost- 

 burg, three were in a good state of fructification. And Goppert, in 

 his ' Systema Filicum Fossilium,' figures and describes not less than 

 twenty-five species in that condition, mostly from the coal-mines of 

 Silesia. 



Professor Lindley also found that branches of dicotyledonous trees, 

 when soaked in water, lost their bark, and all external marks by 

 which they might be recognised. But it is well known that the 

 Sigillariae (which Dr. Lindley himself considers as true Dicotyle- 

 dons) are constantly found in the carboniferous strata with their 

 bark and all its markings well-preserved. 



These considerations seem to me to render it improbable, that 

 the plants preserved in the rocks of the coal formation should have 

 been subjected to maceration in water for a length of time before 

 they became fossilized. 



Another point which deserves some attention, in reference to the 

 present question, is the compressed state in which the trunks of 

 Sigillaria, Lepidodendron, and Calamites, are usually found in the 

 strata accompanying the coal. This indicates that they must have 

 undergone a very considerable degree of pressure previous to petri- 

 faction, and while they were still in a comparatively soft and yield- 

 ing state. The pressure which flattened these large stems, and 

 which prevented the escape of the volatile ingredients of those ac- 

 cumulations of vegetable matter that formed the coal, would pro- 

 bably also prevent the decomposition of the other plants that accom- 

 panied them. 



I think, therefore, there is reason to believe that the ferns and 

 other plants which occur in the shales and sandstones accompanying 

 the coal, were not subjected to the same conditions as the plants 

 upon which Dr. Lindley made his observations. If they had, like 

 those, been macerated in water for a great length of time, we could 

 readily admit that a large proportion of the species might have pe- 

 rished. But if, as seems more probable, they were speedily buried 

 beneath great accumulations of mud and detritus, then the condi- 

 tions were essentially different from those of Dr. Lindley 's experi- 

 ment ; and we have no right to infer from that experiment that 

 whole tribes of dicotyledonous plants had perished, while the ferns 

 which grew in company with them were preserved. 



I have entered at some length into this question, because of the 

 high authority which Prof. Lindley's name deservedly carries with 

 it, and because I have observed that some of the most eminent geo- 

 * Fossil Flora, vol. iii. p. 3. 



