34 



FOSSIL PLANTS. 



memoirs of Mr. Witham,' Messrs. Lindley and Hutton/ and M. Adolphe Brongniart,^ on 

 the structure of the stem. 



Professor Morris '^ first described the capsules, so generally found in " splint " or 

 " bone " coal, on which Mr. Carruthers^ has established his genus Memingites. 



Dr. Hooker*^ collected materials which enabled him to show the anatomy of Lepido- 

 sirobus. 



Dr. Robert Brown,^ in a memoir read before the Linnean Society in 1847 and pub- 

 lished in 1851, gave to the world a more perfect specimen of a portion of a cone than had 

 been previously figured. 



Mr. Carruthers * has shown what he considered to be the differences between Lepido- 

 strobus and his new genus Flemingites. 



And latterly M. Adolphe Brongniart^ and Professor Schimper^" have obtained speci- 

 mens of the most perfect cones, exhibiting both microspores and macrospores in the same 

 cone. 



§ 2. Stem. — For many years the beautiful stems of Lepidodendron have attracted the 

 attention of collectors of Coal-plants, on account of the elegant sculpture of the spots 

 where the leaf proceeded from the stem. In the ordinary condition of the fossil plant, 

 whether found in shales or sandstones, these have the appearance of scales, and hence the 

 name. But this was not the original form of the scar of attachment, as Dr. Hooker" first 

 showed ; for the pitted knob, afterwards compressed into the so-called scale, projected 

 originally from the stem one fourth to one third of an inch, as specimens in my cabinet 

 prove. Different " species " have been named, owing to specimens being more or less 

 compressed out of their original form. M. Ad. Brongniart has enumerated a great 

 number of so-called species, which Professor Schimper has reduced to fifty-six. Doubtless 

 these will have to be still further reduced, as in the case also of Sigillaria, when we become 



' 'Observations on Fossil Vegetables,' by Henry Witham, 4to, Edinburgh, 1831; and On the 

 Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic Deposits of Great Britain,' 

 by H. T. Witham, of Lartington, 4to, Edinburgh, 1835. 



2 'The Fossil Flora of Great Britain,' by Dr. Lindley and W. Hutton, 3 vols. 8vo, London, 

 1831-37. 



^ ' Hiatoire des Vegetaux fossiles, ou Recherches Botaniques et Geologiques,' &c., 2 vols. 4 to, 

 Paris, 1828. 



* 'Transact. Geol. Soc. London,' 2nd series, vol. v (explanation of plate xxxviii), 4to, London, 1840. 



^ and ** 'Geological Magazine,' vol. ii, p. 433, 8vo, London, 1865; and ibid., vol. vi, pp. 151, 

 &c., 1869. 



^ ' Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain,' vol. ii, part 2, pp. 440, &c., 8vo, 

 London, 184^. 



7 'Transact. Linnean Seciety,' vol. xx, 4to, London, 1851. 



^ ' Comptes Rendus,' vol. Ixvii, pp. 421, &c., &c., 4to, Paris, 1868. 



^^ 'Traite de Paleontologie vegetale,' vol. ii, p. 69. Paris, 1870. 



11 ' Mem. Geol. Surv.,' vol. ii, part 2, p. 444. 



