April, 1911.] 
The Ancient Vegetation of Ohio. 
3 2r 
testimony to what once existed. Though not reported in the 
Coal-measures of Ohio, the aggregations and often large masses 
of resinous bodies, amber, fossil coral, and a multitude of similar 
substances by their varying quantities show the exact character 
of the vegetation. With the flora many animals commingled; 
and where they were most abundant, their fossil remains are 
found. Little is known of the characteristic plants of the upland 
vegetation. There are descriptions of about 150 species for Ohio 
(14, 19, 24, 25), but most of the interesting fossil plants were 
found in the roof of Coal No. 1, that is in the marshes near the 
base of the Coal-measures. In Ohio this stratigraphical position 
is “more than two thousand feet above the base of the series, as 
revealed in the geosynclinal basin of West Virginia, which was 
first filled with strata of the Coal-measures and long before any 
similar formations took place upon the ancient marginal Waverly 
plateau of Ohio” (1.) 
The flowering plants (Anthophyta) had not yet appeared. 
Bacteria (22, 23) and other fungi were present, no doubt, in great 
abundance. Liverworts and Mosses (Bryophyta) were probably 
in existence but they still held an unimportant place. There 
were principally ferns (Pteridophyta) which at this time had 
reached their greatest development and differentiation. Their 
first appearance is as strange and distinctive among plants as 
that of the brachiopods among the animals. They were in part 
more primitive than now and in part more advanced representing 
transitional types; but they surpassed all other forms in number 
and persistency of type. There were scouring rushes (Calamo- 
phyta) of much higher and varied organization and of greater 
height and diameter than the present forms. The several species 
of the Sphenophyllales long since extinct, were of tree-like aspect, 
bearing small wedge-shaped leaves, and sporophvlls in cones; 
most of them are found as undergrowth beneath the shade of 
giant lycopods. The Equisetales had hollow jointed stems with 
very small narrow leaves; they are mostly extinct plants of which 
but one genus, Equisetum, has survived. The Calamariales also 
long since extinct, grew in dense thickets; they often were of tree- 
like aspect and dimensions, with narrow distinct leaves in which 
the stomata were deeply set. The branches and leaves were 
placed in whorlcs on jointed hollow stems which arose from 
underground rhizoms and increased in diameter by the growth of 
a cambial zone; their wounds were healed by a development of 
cork. There were the Lycopods (Lepidophyta) the largest of the 
carboniferous plants, in the form of Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, 
both with long needle-shaped leaves and stomata in deep furrows 
on the under side, often protected by a hairy covering; the trees 
were surface-rooted, the roots spreading out in all directions from 
the trunk. There were the Cycads (Cycadophyta) , fern-like gymno- 
