PAST HISTORIES OF PLANT FAMILIES 



93 



i^ 



Among the fossil remains of this family there are 

 impressions, casts, and true petrifactions, so that we 

 know both its external appearance and 

 the internal anatomy of nearly every 

 part of several species of the genus. 

 For a long time the various fossil re- 

 mains of the plant were not recognized 

 as belonging to each other and together 

 forming the records of one and the 

 same plant — the broad, long leaves 

 with their parallel veins were looked 

 on as Monocotyledons (see fig. 6i); the 

 pith casts (see fig. 63) were thought to 

 be peculiar constricted stems, and were 

 called Sternbergia; while the wood, 

 which was known from its microscopic 

 structure, was called Araucarioxylon — 

 but the careful work of many masters of 

 fossil botany, whose laborious studies we 

 cannot describe in detail here, brought 

 all these fragments together and proved 

 them to belong to Cordaites. 



We now know that Cordaites were 

 large trees, with strong upright shafts 

 of wood, to whose branches large simple 

 leaves were attached. The leaves were 

 much bigger than those of any living 

 Gymnosperm, even than those of the 

 Kauri Pine (a member of the Arau- 

 cariaceae), and seem in some species 

 to have exceeded 3 ft. in length. The 

 trees branched only at the top of the ^^' 



main shaft, and with their huge sword- ^J;^^; ^I'Z^^^J^y^L 

 like leaves must have differed greatly broad base to a stem, . 

 in appearance from any plant now 

 living. The leaves had many parallel veins, as can 

 be seen in fig. 61, and were attached by a broad base 

 directly to the main stem; thus coming closer to the 



