1530 



CORMOPHYTA. 



second family is represented by the genus Cordaites (fig. 1399), 

 ranging from the Devonian to the Permian, and occurring in both 



the Old and New Worlds. 

 These plants formed trees 

 reaching to a height of 20 or 

 30 feet, with the stems marked 

 by transverse leaf-scars, and the 

 leaves arranged in whorls ; the 

 leaves themselves (fig. 1399) 

 being comparatively broad, 

 with parallel longitudinal veins, 

 and attached by a somewhat 

 wide base. Their fructification 

 consisted of male and female 

 catkins, forming long racemes 

 (fig. 1399), and known as An- 

 tholithus ; which subsequently 

 produced berries known as 

 Cardiocarfius, some of which 

 appear to have had wing-like 

 envelopes, while other types 

 had a soft pulpy cover like 

 those of the existing Yews. 

 The stem had a large central 

 pith surrounded by scalariform 

 tissue with a cylinder of woody 

 wedges ; the casts of these pith- 

 cavities are included among 

 the so-called Ste?-nbergia, to be 

 shortly mentioned. According 

 to Dr Schenk the female fructification of Cordaites is most like that 

 of the Cycads, while the male fructification and the structure of the 

 stem comes nearest to the Conifers. 



In this place certain Carboniferous 

 fruits which have not at present been 

 referred to their respective plants may 

 be conveniently noticed. These have 

 been named Rhabdocarpus, Carpolithus, 

 Trigonocarpus (fig. 1400), and Palce- 

 oxyris. They are large and angulated 

 nut-like fruits, resembling those of the 

 Yews. Specimens of Trigonocarpus are 

 extremely numerous in some of the coal- 

 measures ; a slab of sandstone in the British Museum measuring 

 21X15 inches containing more than 400 of these nuts. The sug- 



Fig. 1399. — A branch of Cordaites', from 

 the Carboniferous. Reduced. (After Grand' 

 Eury.) 



Fig. 1400. — Trigonocarpus Par- 

 kins onsi ; from the Carboniferous 

 of England. (After Lindley and 

 Hutton.) 



