>i 
roots ; insome places no traces 
1847.] BROWN ON LEPIDODENDRON WITH STIGMARIA ROOTS. 49 
commonly observed in Stigmaria are absent) consist of small oval- 
shaped knobs or eminences arranged in spiral lines; the surface is 
also marked with waving longitudinal strie. At C, the decorticated 
root is distinctly imbricated like the stem, but the areolee, although 
very perfect, do not appear to be arranged in any regular order. Near 
the extremity of the root at D, the surface is marked “in quincuncial 
order with depressed areolee, with a rising in the middle, im the centre 
of which rising a minute speck is observable*.”” The surface of this 
part of the root is also marked by longitudinal sinuous lines alternately 
approaching and receding, which cause a strong resemblance to the 
waving rhomboidal spaces exhibited by Lepidodendron obovatum. 
I observed rootlets spreading upwards from the areolze into the shale 
between the first forkings and the extremities, but none near the stem. 
There are no visible traces of rootlets in the coal, although there can 
be no doubt that they penetrated deeply imto the underlying mass 
of vegetable matter from which the tree derived its chief nutriment, 
the areolee being much larger and more distinct upon the under than 
the upper sides of the roots. 
The roots are filled with a hard dark bluish shale arranged in 
nearly horizontal layers, inclining a little towards the core or pith, 
which is impregnated with iron pyrites and lies on the under side of 
the roots, sometimes in contact with the coaly bark, as shown in fig. 7, 
which is a transverse section of a piece at 6 feet from the stem; (@) 
being the bark, (4) the core or pith, and (c, c) the lines of bedding in the 
shale. Nearer to the stem, the ; 
core, which is much flattened, Pig. 7. 
has almost maintained its origi- 
nal position in the centre of the c , 
aso 
LO De 
WE: Ll TMM 
D Wi TM LY 
ue IL. Dp, 
whatever of the core could be Ul 
found. These roots must have b 
been perfectly hollow before 
the deposition of mud within began, fern-leaves bemg interposed 
between the layers of shale, which “could only have obtained access 
thereto by settling down through the trunk from above. It must 
be observed, the preceding description of the roots refers only to the 
most perfect branch I could select; many of the others have been so 
much crushed and distorted, that it is impossible to make out either 
any rhomboidal structure or regular order in the arrangement of the 
areolee. : 
Since it has been shown that Lepidodendra possessed roots and 
rootlets of Stigmarize, bearing a strong resemblance to those which 
have so often been found united to Sigillarize, we certainly have good 
reason to conclude that all the large trees, which flourished during the 
carboniferous period, were furnished with roots of a similar character, 
especially adapted to the soft muddy soil which universally prevailed 
over those areas upon which coal strata were accumulating, none of 
a different description having yet been found in the roofs or under- 
clays of the coal seams. 
* T quote from Steinhauer’s description of Stigmaria, which applies precisely to 
this part of our fossil. 
VOL. 1V.—PART I. E 
