PART II. CHAPTER XX. 



251 



Fossil Plants of the Coal Strata. 



a. Lycopodium densum; banks of R. Thames, New Zealand. 



b. branch, natural size. c. part of same, magnified. 



and even in tropical countries only attain, as in the case of 

 Equisetum giganteum, discovered by Humboldt and Bonpland, 

 in South America, a height of about five feet, the stem being an 

 inch in diameter. The Calamites, however, of the Coal differed 

 from these, principally in being furnished with a thin bark, 

 which is represented in the stem of C. SucJcoivii, (Fig. 261.) in 

 which it will be seen that the striped external pattern does not 



Fig. 260. Fig. 261. 



Calamites carimformis, Schlot. Calamites Suckowii, Brong. 



(Foss. Flo. 79.) Common in natural size. Common in 



English coal. , coal throughout Europe. 



agree with that left on the stone where the bark is stripped off, 

 so that if the two impressions were seen separately, they might 

 be mistaken for two distinct species. 



Coniferce. — The structure of the wood of certain coal-plants 

 displays so great an analogy to that of certain pines of the genus 

 Araucaria, as to lead to the opinion that some species of firs 

 existed at this period. (See above, p. 56.) 



