PLANTS OF THE COAL. 



361 



leaves (Fig. 459), reminding us of the yew or the Araucaria, and those 

 with broad, strap-shaped, or tongue-like leaves, with parallel or radiated 

 venation, like that strange, broad-leaved living 

 Conifer, the Ginko (Fig. 463). One of the 

 commonest and most characteristic of this 

 group is the Cordaites. All parts of this 

 plant are known; so that we may restore it 

 with some confidence (Fig. 468). We may 

 imagine a cylindrical, branchless trunk, some- 

 times sixty to seventy feet high, clothed atop 

 with long, strap-shaped leaves like a Dracaena, 

 and bearing clusters of nut-like fruits. Many 

 of the fruits represented in the figures on the 

 previous page are from this tree. 



Affinities of Carboniferous Conifers.— Con- 

 ifers of this time were not typical Conifers. 

 There are no signs of true cones in the coal. 

 All the so-called Conifers of that time bore 

 solitary, nut-like fruits. Now, Conifers of the 

 yew family, and the broad-leaved Ginko, are 

 the only ones that now 

 might be compared with these. These Coni- 

 fers bear solitary plum-like fruits, with large, nut-like seeds (Figs. 

 461 and 462). The Cycads also bear somewhat similar fruit. The best 

 illustration from the yew family is the California nutmeg (Torreya). 

 It bears a plum-like fruit about the size of a large plum, with a nut- 

 like seed as large as a pecan-nut. It is, therefore, among the yew fam- 

 ily and the Ginkos that we must seek for allies of the coal Conifers. 

 In fact, all gradations in shape of the leaf may be traced between the 

 Cordaites (Fig. 469 a, b) and Noggerathia, of the Carboniferous (c), 

 and Ginkophyllum of Permian (d) to Ginko (e,f) of the Jurassic, and 



bear fruits which FlG - 468.-Cordaites (restored by 



Dawson). 



Fig. 469.— Evolution of the Ginkos: a and b, Cordaites, Carboniferous; c, Noggerathia. Carbonif- 

 erous; d, Ginkophyllum, Permian; e, Ginko digatata, 061ite;/, Ginko biloba, living. 



the present time. The yew family and the Ginko may be regarded as 

 the most generalized of Conifers, connecting them closely with the 



