36 



FOSSIL PLANTS. 



to be the foliage of that plant merely from being found in the interior of its stem. The 

 same may be said of 8ti(/maricB found in nodules in the Wigan Four Feet Coal, which are 

 full of spores, but up to this time, to my knowledge, no one has clearly proved such spores 

 to belong to Sigillafia. 



In pi. V, figs. 10, 11, 12, and 13, of Dr. Hooker's memoir, there is, in my opinion, 

 clear evidence to prove that the structure of the stem of Lepidodendron is identical with 

 that of a Lepidostrohus. In this Monograph proof will be adduced in confirmation of 

 Dr. Hooker's opinion, by showing that the stem of Lepidodendron Harcourtii is identical 

 in structure with the axis of Tripilosporites or Lepidostrohus Brownii of Carruthers, and 

 that the stem of Lepidodendron vasculare had a cone resembling that of Lepidodendron 

 Harcourtii in the form of its sporangia, with the bracts and leaves also similar, but was still 

 different in the structure of its central column. 



^ 5. Boots {Boioman and BinneiJ). — As to the roots of Lepidodendron, w^e are not in 

 possession of much definite infoiTuation. In the remarkable fossil trees described by the 

 late Mr. J. E. Bowman, F.G.S.,^ and which I had the pleasure of visiting with my lamented 

 friend, the specimens were clearly of two kinds, most of them being Sigillaria, but 

 certainly one or two of them having markings on their exterior like those usually found on 

 Lepidodendron. Around and at the bases of the stems were nodules of clay-ironstone, in 

 the shales, all full of Lepidostrohus , chiefly L. variahilis. At that time both of us believed 

 that such cones had been connected with, and in fact had constituted, the fruit of the stems, 

 but of which of them we did not hazard an opinion. 



§ 0. Boots {Bd. Broion). — Mr. Richard Brown, in his description^ of an upright 

 Jjcpidodendron with 8tigmarian roots, in the roof of the Sydney Main Coal, in the Island 

 of Cape Breton, gives very good evidence of the root of his specimen being Stigmaria ; 

 but as to the stem being a Lejndodendron, it does not appear so certain from his pub- 

 lished illustrations, at least the evidence adduced cannot by any means be considered 

 conclusive as to whether the specimen belonged to Lepidodendron or to Sigillaria. 



^ 7. Boots {Llooker). — Dr. Hooker, in his " Vegetation of the Carboniferous Period, as 

 compared with that of the Present Day,"^ says, " Of the stems, branches, leaves, and 

 fructification [of Lepidodendron~\ we have thus a very satisfactory knowledge, but the 

 nature of their roots is not ascertained. Mr. Dawes, of West Bromwich, to whom I am 

 indebted for much information regarding the structural characters of Coal Fossils, is 

 inclined to regard the species of Halonia as roots of Lepidodendron^ on which opinion I 

 have no remarks to offer." 



' 'Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society,' vol. i, pp. 112 — 184, 8vo, 1841. 



2 ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. iv, pp. 46, &c., 1847. 



3 'Mem. Geo). Surv.,' vol. ii, part 2, p. 422. 



