194 L. Lesquereux on the Coal Formations of the United States. 
ready known from European researches. The fossil flora is very 
similar to the history of olden times. It is known only by frag- 
ments and these must be connected by links and repeatedly 
elucidated by corresponding data, collected from the monuments 
of various nations. 
Second; to present a comprehensive review of the main facts 
known up to the present time about our coal flora and to estab- 
lish, by a critical comparison, the essential characters of the fami- 
lies, genera, and even some species of our coal plants. 
§ 1. Fucoides, Brgt. 
Under this name, a number of vegetable remains of the coal 
have been formerly described and referred to marine plants. 
Indeed some geologists have applied the term Fucordes to every 
one of those uncertain forms, mostly stems and roots, which could 
not be referred to some species known and published before. The 
Fucoides are not only very rare in the true coal measures, but 
even doubt if a single specimen of a true marine plant has ever 
been found in these measures. At least I have seen none, and 
b 
species of fucoides are fragments of coal plants, or that the for- 
* We cannot call them either marine or fresh water plants, The coal pl 
remarked before, had a peculiar nature, like those of the peat bogs and were appro 
priated to the formation of the coal. They could vegetate with slight modification 
of forms either in or out of water and probanly both in marine and fresh water. 
ants as 
