236 
ENDOGENITES EROSA. 
racters, and is sometimes dichotomous, like the 
Clathraria, but the recent plant has not the bases 
of the leaves consolidated into a sort of bark, as in 
the fossil.* There are occasionally found in the 
Tilgate sandstone, irregular ramose fossils, having 
an obscurely fibrous structure, and these bear so 
much resemblance to the roots of the DracoEna^ 
that there appears every reason to conclude they 
are the remains of those of the Clathraria Lyellii. 
Endogenites erosa.y Plate I. fig. 7 * 4. and 5. 
This is the only other vegetable, of any consider- 
able size, that occurs in the strata of Tilgate Forest. 
A small specimen, exhibiting that peculiar eroded 
appearance of the surface denoted by the specific 
name, is so beautifully represented in the plate, as 
to convey a most correct idea of the original. 
This singular plant is of various forms and sizes : 
it is generally more or less flattened, attenuated at 
the base, and swells out at intervals, like some 
of the Cacti, and Euphorbia. Some examples are 
hatchet-shaped, and nearly flat, being from three 
to four feet long, twelve inches broad at the widest 
part, and not more than two or three inches in 
thickness : others are subcylindrical. All of them 
are covered with a dark carbonaceous matter, 
* “ Ce qui distingue cependant cette tigefossile de cedes de ce genre 
de la Nouvelle Hollande, c’est que, dans la plante vivante, les bases des 
feuilles qui forment cette fause ecorce, sont distinctes et seuleinent 
reunies par une matiere resineuse, analogue au sang-dragon. Dans la 
Clathraria Lyellii au contraire, I’ecorce paroit d’un seul inor^eau et 
fonnee par la soudure complete et intiine des bases des feuilles : ces 
feuilles sont aussi beaucoup plus grosses dans la j)lante fossile et en 
moins grand nombre autour de la tige .” — Prodrome d'7ine Histoire des 
Vegetaux Fossiles. 
