A MONOGRAPH 



STIGMARIA FICOIDES. 



Few of the objects studied by Palaeontologists have occasioned more specula- 

 tion than those fragments of Carboniferous vegetation long known by the names 

 of Variolaria, Phytolithus, and Ficoidites, but now recognised by that of Stigmaria 

 Jicoides assigned to them by Adolphe Brongniart. 1 The opinions formed respecting 

 their botanical nature and relationship have varied even more than their names. For 

 more than half a century nothing could be learnt respecting them beyond what their 

 external contours could teach ; and, since many misunderstood causes combined to 

 modify those contours, most of the opinions formed respecting them had no value. 

 But much light has been thrown upon these fossils during the last half century. 

 Nevertheless, even at the present time some eminent Palaeontologists continue to 

 give circulation to views respecting them which are, in my opinion, altogether incon- 

 sistent with what, to British geologists, are well-known facts. Some of these views 

 are reproductions of what we might have hoped were exploded errors. Others are 

 new, but apparently no truer than the older ones. 



To catalogue the vague guesses promulgated respecting Stigmarias in earlier 

 days would be wasted labour. But the case is altered when we find such distin- 

 guished leaders of the French school of Palaeo-botanists, as M. Renault, M. Grand- 

 Eury, the Marquis of Saporta, and M. Marion giving currency to what I believe to 

 be serious errors, alike of observation and of interpretation, relating to the Stig- 

 maria ficoides of Brongniart. It happens that the Coal-Measures of Great Britain, 

 Canada, and the United States of America are rich beyond most other countries in 

 the supply they afford of specimens of this plant. This is true not only of the 

 structureless examples known to our forefathers, but of others in which the 

 internal structure is preserved with exquisite beauty and completeness. Hence 

 the rich stores contained in our cabinets enable us to speak with a decision that 



1 ' Prodrome d'une Histoire des Vegetaux Fossiles,' Paris, 1828. 



