132 PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICIL SOCIETY. [DeC. 20, 



Siglllaria. After making due allowance for differences of preserva- 

 tion, I have been able to recognize eleven species or forms of Siuj- 

 maria in Nova Scotia, corresponding, as I believe, to as many species 

 of Sigillaria:*. At the Joggins, Stigmarice are more abundant than 

 any other fossil plants. This arises from their preservation in the 

 numerous fossil soils or Stigmaria underclays. Their bark, and 

 mineral charcoal derived from their axes, also abound throughout 

 the thickness of the coal-beds, indicating the continued growth of 

 Sigillaria in the accumulation of the coal, (i'igs. 83 to 87 PL XII.) 



Our knowledge of the fructification of Sigillaria is as yet of a very 

 uncertain character. I am aware that Goldenberg has assigned to 

 these plants leafy strobiles containing spore- capsules : but I do not' 

 think the evidence which he adduces conclusive as to their connexion 

 with Sigillaria ; and the organs themselves are so precisely similar to 

 the strobiles of Lepidophloios, that I suspect they must belong to that 

 or some allied genus. The leaves, also, with which they are associated 

 in one of Goldenberg's figures seem more like those of Lepido^pJiloios 

 than those of Sigillaria. If, however, these are really the organs of 

 fructification of any species of Sigillaria, I think it will be found that 

 we have included in this genus, as in the old genus Calamites, two di- 

 stinct groups of plants, one cr5^ptogamous,and the other phgenogamous, 

 or else that male strobiles bearing pollen have been mistaken for spore- 

 bearing organs. 



I cannot pretend that I have found the fruit of Sigillaria attached 

 to the parent stem ; but I think that a reasonable probability can be 

 established that some at least of the fruits included, somewhat vaguely, 

 by authors under the names of Trigonocarpum and Rhahdocarpus 

 were really fruits of Sigillaria. These fruits are excessively abundant 

 and of many species, and they occur not only in the sandstones but 

 in the fine shales and coals and in the interior of erect trees, showing 

 that they were produced in the coal-swamps. The structures of these 

 fruits show that they are phsenogamous and probably gymnospermous. 

 Now the only plants known to us in the coal-formation, whose struc- 

 tures entitle them to this rank, are the Conifers, Sigillarice, and Cala- 

 modendra. All the others were in structure allied to cryptogams, 

 and the fructification of most of them is known. But the Conifers 

 were too infrequent in the Carboniferous swamps to have afforded 

 numerous species of CarpoUtes ; and, as I shall presently show, the 

 Calamodendra were very closely allied to Sigillaria^, if not members 

 of that family. Unless, therefore, these fruits belonged to Sigillaria, 

 they must have been produced by some other trees of the coal-swamj^s, 

 which, though very abundant and of numerous species, are as yet quite 

 unknown to us. Some of the Trigonocarpa have been claimed for 

 Conifers, and their resemblance to the fruits of Salishurya gives 

 countenance to this claim ; but the Conifers of the Coal-period are 

 much too few to afford more than a fraction of the species. One species 

 oi Bhahdocarjoushas been attributed by Geinitz to the gemisJS^oeggeiYi- 

 thia ; but the leaves which he assigns to it are very like those of 

 Sigillaria elegans, and may belong to some allied species. With 

 ^ See Appendix. 



