82 THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Erian and the Permian. T-hey culminated, however, 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 mirabile* 



Fig. 31. — Erian fruits, &c, some gymnospermous, and probably of Cordaites 

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

 nutum. b, Cardiocarpum acutum. c, Cardiocarpum Crampii. d, Car- 

 diocarpum BaileyL e, Trigonocarpum racemosum. e 1 , e 2 , Fruits en- 

 larged, f, Antholithes Devonicus. g, Annularia acuminata, h, As- 

 terophyllites acicularis. h 2 , Fruit of the same, k, Cardiocarpum 

 (? young of A.), l, Pinnularia 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," vol. xviii. 



