31 
ceedingly minute and fragile structure of these bodies is 
considered, and that too in connexion with the vast period 
which must have elapsed since they were green and flourish- 
ing. The age and perfection of the finest mummies of 
ancient Egypt sink into insignificance when compared with 
these embalmed fern seeds. These microscopic records 
of an early world preserved in sepulchres more enduring 
than the pyramids themselves, cannot fail to call up a train 
of reflections on subjects of the most intense interest. 
In Morris's catalogue of British fossils, Odontopteris 
Britannica is quoted as a Yorkshire coal plant, but without 
any precise information as to the locality ; I therefore insert 
it, having full confidence in this author's accuracy. Of the 
anomalous genus, Schizopteris, one species has been found 
in the Oolitic shale at Gristhorp Bay, — by Mr. Bean, I 
believe, who has named it gracilis. The last genus of 
ferns of which we have any examples is Tseniopteris, plants 
much resembling in form the modern genus, Scolopendrium, 
but differing in the mode of fructification. Three species 
of this genus occur in the Oolitic shale of Gristhorp, the 
Tseniopteris major, ovalis, and vittata. 
From the frondose portion of the ferns we now take 
those large vegetable remains, known under the names of 
Sigillaria, Favularia, &c.,* of whose real nature and affinity 
nothing positive is known. That the first entered very 
* In order to familiarise the reader with the general appearance of these large 
stems, a slight analysis is here given : — 
1. Sigillaria. — Stem furrowed, not branched, scars of leaves small, round, 
much narrower than the ridges of the stem. 
2. Favularia. — Stem furrowed, not branched, scars of leaves small square, 
as broad as the ridges of the stem. 
3. Megaphyton. — Stem not furrowed, nor branched, dotted, scars of leaves 
very large, of a horse shoe figure, much narrower than the ridges. 
4. Bothrodendron. — Stem not furrowed, nor branched, covered with dots, 
scars of cones obliquely oval. 
5. Ulodendron — Stem not furrowed, nor branched, covered with rhomboidal 
marks, scars of cones circular. 
