82 



THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Erian and the Permian. They culminated, howeTer, in 

 the Carboniferous period, and the coal-fields of southern 

 France have proved so far the richest in their remains. 



Lastly, a single specimen, collected by Prof. James 

 Hall, of Albany, at Eighteen-mile Creek, Lake Erie, has 

 the structure of an ordinary angiospermous exogen, and 

 has been described by me as Syringoxylon miraMle* 



Fig. 31. — Erian fruits, &o., some gymnoBpermous, and probably of CiwiiaJto 

 and Taxine trees (St. John, New Brunswick), a, CardMcarpum cor- 

 nvtum. B, OardMccerpwrn aeufum. o, Cariiocarfum OrampU. d, Car- 

 diocarpum Baileyi. e, Trigonooarpum racemoswm. e', e", Fruits en- 

 larged. F, AnthoUthss Devonicue. g, Annularia, aouTmnaia. b, As- 

 terophyllites adoularis. h^, Fruit of tlie same, b, 

 (J young of A.), l, Pmnularia dispalans (probably a root). 



This unique example is sufficient to establish the fact of 

 the existence of such plants at this early date, unless some 

 accident may have carried a specimen from a later forma- 



' Journal of the Geological Society," toI. xriii. 



