28 



FOSSIL PLANTS. 



As previously stated, I am indebted to my friend Mr. John Aitken for the specimen 

 which I believe Avas found by Mr. H. Stephenson, near the lowest Brooksbottom Coal, 

 at Ewood Bridge, Lancashire, about fourteen yards below the position of the greater 

 number of the specimens described in this memoir, and near the seam of coal marked * 

 in the vertical section of the Lancashire Coal-field previously given (p. 12). The only 

 point in which this specimen appears to differ from Ludwig's (see above, p. 5), is 

 that it only possesses eight to nine receptacles or cells, against his fifteen to sixteen. 



Another specimen of the fructification of a plant evidently allied to Aster opltyllites 

 and Cakmodendron is given in Plate VI, fig. 2 (No. 13), magnified half as large again 

 as the original. This consists of a stout stem, finely ribbed and furrowed, and affording 

 evidence of four sets of fruit-cones, springing upAvards at a high angle from four joints of 

 the stem. Although only four cones are seen at each joint, more may be underneath, 

 covered up in the matrix. In two of those sets which are more perfect than the rest we 

 observe traces of four cones, and in the other only two. Each cone has a central axis or 

 column, from which spring ten scales on a side, forming receptacles or sporangium cases, 

 similar to those described in PI. VI, fig. 1 (p. 27), except that there we only see eight 

 on each side. In this specimen we do not find the terminal point of the cone, so that 

 there is no positive evidence of the number of scales it originally possessed. 



In size and characters, especially as to its stem, this specimen bears considerable 

 resemblance to the Volhnannia sessilis, of Presl, figured by Dr. Goeppert,^ as well as to 

 the fructification of Ccdaniodcndron ; and although probably the evidence may not be 

 sufficient clearly to connect either this or the last-described specimen specifically with the 

 Cakmodendron commune figured by me, still they must be considered as nearly allied to 

 it, as well as to Ludwig^s specimen (see above, p. 5), and they are valuable in showing 

 the connection of the cones with the stems on which they grew. 



In the Upper Coal-measures of Ardwick, near Manchester, above the highest seam 

 of coal there met with, is an abundance of Catamites and Aster opliyllites, especially 

 the species A. longifolia, of Lindley and Hutton ; and connected with the latter plant, 

 and lying around both, are numerous fruit-cones, which, although showing no structure 

 (being embedded in a liver-coloured shale), give a clear idea of their external form, and 

 the mode by which they were connected with the stem and leaves of Asteroj)liyllites. 



PI. VI, fig. 3 (No. 14), represents a specimen of Aster op hyllites longifolia (from 

 Ardwick) in my cabinet, magnified half as large again as its natural size. Springing from 

 the stem, at each of the joints, twelve to fourteen verticillate leaves are shown in the part of 

 the specimen exposed, and probably as many more may be concealed on the other side 



iiber das Verhaltniss der fossilen Flora zu Darwin's Transmutations-Theorie von Dr. H. R. Goeppert, 

 Dresden, ]864. 



^ See Goeppert on ' Aphyllostacliys,' ante. 



