FK03I THE UUTTON COLLECTION. 121 



(END0GENITE8, L. et H.J. 



235.— Endogeniles striata, L. et H. Type SPECIMEN, F. F., pi. 227A. 

 This small portion of an internal cylindrical pith is covered 

 with carbonaceous matter ; on one side, as figured, are a 

 number of fine longitudinal raised lines, some of which are 

 stronger and formed by two lines or folds uniting into one. 

 It is about three and a half inches long and about four-fifths 

 of an inch broad. It is the pith or medullary axis of Sigil- 

 laria, and differs very considerably from the axis of Lepido- 

 dendron. No Hutton label on this example, but the identity 

 of this specimen with the above figure is undoubted. 

 Loc. — Northumberland and Durham Coal-field. (H.C. 539). 



Remarks. — ~No one, after a careful examination of the above 

 Lindley-Hutton Type-specimens, will doubt that they represent 

 different stages of growth and different states of preservations of 

 one species of Sigillaria. It has been usual to refer this common 

 and best-known form to Brongniart's S. reniformis, Plates 142, 

 160, Hist. Yeget. Fossiles. I am not quite assured that this 

 reference to Brongniart's Type is correct, as his figure of the 

 leaf-scar of this species, Plate 140, seems to be taken from an 

 imperfect scar of a very old stem. Our specimens have the ovate 

 leaf-scar of S. laevigata, which, at present, I consider as only a 

 better preserved and younger specimen of S. reniformis. The 

 shape of the leaf-scar (making due allowance for alteration of 

 shape by maceration and compression in many directions) seems 

 to be at present the only character by which to distinguish the 

 species of Sigillaria. Unless we adhere rigidly to this character 

 numberless false species can be made at pleasure, according to 

 the state of preservation of the specimen. The width of the 

 ribs and the distance apart of the leaf-scars are due to age, and 

 stages and conditions of growth and situation, rather than spe- 

 cific differences. If this opinion be correct, we have theu, at 

 present known, only two specific forms of Sigillaria proper in 

 this Coal-field, in some parts of which individual plants are most 

 abundant. 



Some years ago the large Sigillarian stem, S. Boghallense, fig- 

 ured by Sternberg, Plate 37, f. 5, from a drawing by the late 

 Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, Bart., was presented to the Natural 



