44 



FOSSIL PLANTS. 



"B. Sjncee fnidificatonis. 



SiGiLLARiosTROBUs, ' Sch. Atlas,' Plate LXVII, figs. 12, 24. 



" Spicae pedicellata) strobilifomies oblongo et elongato-cylindracese, bracteis e basi ovato 

 triangulari subito angustatse, lanceolatas, medio costatae. Sporse sporangio bractese basis 

 lateri anteriori adfixo (incluso ?) inclussej magnas (macrosporae ?) et minores (niicrosporae ?) 

 tetraedrse. 



" Les epis que je rapporte avec M. Goldeiiberg aux Sigillaria se distinguent facilement 

 de ceux des Lepidodendron par leurs bractees, dont la base sporangiopliore est inseree 

 presque verticalement, au lieu de I'etre horizontalement, comme dans ces dernier. Le 

 sporange occupe toute la largeur de la base de la bractee, et parait avoir ete d'une 

 consistance tres tendre. Les spores sont de grandeur difFerente, des macrospores et des 

 microspores ; les premieres ofFrant un diametre de 1, \\, a 2 millimetres, les 

 autres a peine celui de 1 millimetre (voy. notre planclie, figs. 16, 20, 23). Les 

 macrospores se rencontrent souvent en tres-grande quantite dans les couches a SigiUaria et 

 Stiginaria et quelquefois dans I'interieur de ces troncs. 



" Les epis eux-memes etaient fixes au trorc entre les coussinets foliaires, soit en suivant 

 les series droites (orthostiques, voy. notre planclie, fig. 2a), soit en suivant les lignes obliques 

 ou la spire fondamentale. Nons avoiis donne plus haut la description des cicatrices que 

 ces epis ont laissees sur les troncs." 



in. Remarks on Macrospores and Microspores. 



Professor Morris many years ago remarked of tlie capsules from the Coalbrookdale Coal- 

 field that tliey are neitlier mineralized nor bitmninized(see above,p. 4 1 ),but in a stateof brown 

 vegetable matter. On finding similar bodies in some of the Low Moor Coals, he attributed 

 the excellent qualities of those beds for the manufacture of iron to the presence of the 

 spores. It is well known that the soft caking coal of Low Moor, called the " Better Bed," 

 as well as the celebrated hard coal of Elsicar, Yorkshire, and all the Scotch splint coals, 

 have been long prized for their iron-making qualities ; but the goodness of the latter may 

 have arisen from their great power of sustaining weight in the furnace, and their freedom 

 from sulphur, as well as from their containing any peculiar hydrocarbon derived from the 

 spores. In the rich Boghead and Methel Cannels the spore is found, but not in such 

 quantity by any means as in the sphnt coals. On making a section of either of these 

 last-named coals for microscopic observation, and examining it under a three-quarters 



