BIBLIOGRAPHIC HISTORY. 3 



The second significant discovery was recorded by the late Mr. Binney. 1 Some 

 trees, similar in most respects to those of Dixon Fold, were laid bare at St. Helens, 

 in Lancashire, from which Mr. Binney learnt two important truths ; first, that some 

 of these trees were true Sigillariae ; and second, that their roots were the long- 

 discussed Stigmariae. A second discovery of a similar kind was made at Ducken- 

 field, in Lancashire, in the colliery of Messrs. Swire, Lees, and Co., where a short 

 stem was exposed, from one side of which a large root issued. This root, which 

 was three feet and one inch in circumference, ran horizontally for about sixteen 

 inches, when it divided into two branches, each of which again divided. The 

 result of these bifurcations was the production of four smaller roots, none of which 

 underwent further subdivision, though one of them was prolonged to a distance of 

 fifteen feet from the parent stem ; in their proximal proportions the surfaces of 

 these roots exhibited no Stigmarian features, but such were abundantly displayed 

 beyond their second ramifications. Mr. Binney was again the recorder of this 

 most important discovery. 2 



Our next evidence showing that Stigmaria was a root of a large tree, and not 

 an independent plant, came from across the Atlantic. Mr. Richard Brown reported 3 

 the discovery, in the Coal-field of Sydney, Cape Breton Island, of trees similar to 

 those observed in England ; and a little later he pointed out, in addition, that whilst 

 some of these trees were undoubtedly Sigillaria3, amongst them was what he believed 

 to be a Lepidodendron/ whose roots were equally Stigmarian, a fact which has 

 been confirmed by various later observers. Mr. Brown estimated that the spreading 

 roots of one of his trees must have covered two hundred square feet of ground. 

 That the roots of Lepidodendra were Stigmarian was observed by Geinitz on the 

 Continent, and by other observers in the Coal-fields of South Wales. A few years 

 ago a remarkable Carboniferous forest was laid bare close to Oldham, in Lancashire, 

 in which some of the trees were unmistakeably Lepidodendra with Stigmarian 

 roots. 5 



Nothing whatever was known of the internal structure of Stigmaria until 1838, 

 when Mr. (now Professor) Prestwich obtained a specimen from the Coal-field of 

 Colebrook Dale, of which a transverse and a tangential section were figured in the 



1 ' London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine,' series 3, vol. xxiv, p. 105, 1844. 



2 ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London,' vol. ii, 1846. 



3 ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London,' vol. iv, p. 46. 



1 Whether or not Mr. Brown was right in concluding that the plant in question was a Lepido- 

 dendron is unimportant, since we now possess abundant evidence that the root of Lepidodendron as 

 well as of Sigillaria was a Stigmaria ficoides. 



5 In some of his memoirs Mr. Binney contended that the Haloniae were the roots of Lepidodendron. 

 It is now clear that these were the fruit-bearing branches of Lepidodendron — not its roots. M. 

 Renault and M. Grand-Eury bave contended that the Stigmariae are not always roots but rhizomes, 

 which have leaves, and send up aerial stems from their peripheral extremities. The absolute absence 

 of all foundation for these opinions will be shown on a later page. 



