44 EOSSIL PLANTS. 



" B. 8pic(B fructificatonis. 

 SiGiLLARiosTROBUs, ' Sch. Atlas,' Plate LXVII, figs. 12, 24. 



" Spicse pedicellata3 strobiliformes obloiigo et elongato-cylindracese, bracteis e basi ovato 

 triangular! subito angustatse, lanceolatse, medio costatse. Sporse sporangio bractege basis 

 lateri anteriori adfixo (incluso ?) inclussej magnae (macrosporse ?) et miiiores (microsporse ?) 

 tetraedrae. 



" Les epis que je rapporte avec M. Goldenberg aux Sigillaria se distinguent facilement 

 de ceux des Lepidodendron par leurs bractees, dont la base sporangiopliore est inseree 

 presque verticalement, au lieu de I'etre horizontalement, comine dans ces dernier. Le 

 sporange occupe toute la largeur de la base de la bractee, et parait avoir ete d'une 

 consistance tres tendre. Les spores sont de grandeur difFerente, des macrospores et des 

 microspores ; les premieres offrant un diametre de 1, l|^, a 2 millimetres, les 

 autres a peine celui de 1 millimetre (voy. notre planche, figs. 16, 20, 23). Les 

 macrospores se rencontrent souvent en tres-grande quantite dans les couches a Sifjillaria et 

 Stigmaria et quelquefois dans I'interieur de ces troncs. 



" Les epis eux-memes etaient fixes au tronc entre les coussinets foliaires, soit en suivant 

 les series di'oites (orthostiques, voy. notre planclie, fig. 2«), soit en suivant les lignes obliques 

 ou la spire fondamentale. Nons avons donne plus haut la description des cicatrices que 

 ces epis ont laissees sur les troncs." 



in. Remarks on Macrospores and Microspores. 



Professor Morris many years ago remarked of tlie capsules from the Coalbrookdale Coal- 

 field that they are neither mineralized nor bituminized(see above,p. 41), but in a stateof brown 

 vegetable matter. On finding similar bodies in some of the Low Moor Coals, he attributed 

 the excellent qualities of those beds for the manufacture of iron to the presence of the 

 spores. It is well known that the soft caking coal of Low Moor, called the " Better Bed," 

 as well as the celebrated hard coal of Elsicar, Yorkshire, and all the Scotch splint coals, 

 have been long prized for their iron-making qualities ; but the goodness of the latter may 

 have arisen from their gre,at power of sustaining weight in the furnace, and their freedom 

 from sulphur, as well as from their containing any peculiar hydrocarbon derived from the 

 spores. In the rich Boghead and Methel Cannels the spore is found, but not in such 

 quantity by any means as in the splint coals. On making a section of either of these 

 last-named coals for microscopic observation, and examining it under a three-quarters 



