CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 



329 



belong to the same plant. The nut-like character of the fruit separates 

 Cordaites widely from the Lepidodendrids ; and the fact that the leaves 

 fell from the trees bearing them, instead of being persistent, and were 

 simple instead of pinnate, removes them from ordinary Cycads, and 

 affiliates the genus with Conifers, the other family of Gymnosperms. 

 The South- African Conifer, Welwitschia, has both the broad strap-like 

 leaves of Cordaites, and also, as shown in Fig. 643, the winged fruit 

 of Cardiocarpus ; sufficient to sustain the reference of the leaves and 

 fruit to the Conifers, notwithstanding the anomalous character of the 

 African plant. 



Fig. 644 is a view of a large nut-like fruit of the genus Trigono- 



Figs. 644-646 A. 

 6446 _ _._ A 644c 



646 



Fruits. —Fig. 644 a, &, c, Trigonocarpus tricuspidatus ; a, the exterior husk or rind ; b, the nut 



separate from the rind ; 644 c, kernel ; 645, nut of Trigonocarpus ? ; 646, T. ornatus ; 646 a, 



vertical view of summit, showing the six ribs of the surface ; 646A, Cardiocarpus tricuspidatus. 



carpus, generally three or six-sided, whose species are common in the 

 Coal-measures. Fig. 644 a is the husk ; b, the nut ; and c, the kernel. 

 Fig. 645 is the nut of another species. According to Hooker, the 

 Trigonocarpi most resemble the nuts of the genus Salisburia (of 

 China), of the Yew family. 



Characteristic Species. 



1. Lepidodendrids. — Y\%. 618, view — partly ideal— of the extremity of a branch 

 of a Lepidodendron. The slender, pine-like leaves, in the Lepidodendron Sternberyii 

 Brngt., as shown in magnificent specimens from the coal-mines of Radnitz, in Austria, 

 figured by Ettingshausen, are over a foot long, and are as closely crowded about the 

 branches as in any modern Pine. Fig. 619, part of the surface of the Lepidodendron 

 aculeatum Sternb., a common species both in the United States and in Europe. Fig. 

 620, L. clypeatum Lsqx. The cones (Lepidostrobus) found in the same rocks with the 

 Lepidodendra, are regarded as their fruit. They have some resemblance to the cones of 

 Pines. Fig. 621 represents a portion of the stem of Halonia pulchella Lsqx., a plant 

 similar to Lepidodendron, from the Coal-measures of Arkansas. 



Fig. 625, Antholith es prisons Newb. ; 626, Antholithes, species undetermined; 627, A. 

 Pitcairnece Newb. 



