^80; Br Martius on Antediluvian Plants. 
ous on the back ; leaves crowded towards the summits, straight,, 
subacerose. 
1. Lychnophorites dichotomus. 
With rhombiform tessellae, narrow, and very long leaves/ 
Lepidodendron dichotorriumy Sternb. p. 19o pi. 1, S, 8. 
In quarries at Sconia in Bohemia. 
The other species is still doubtful.. 
2. LycJinopJiorites laricinus. 
With subtriangular tessellEe, and narrow leaves. 
Lepidodendron laricinum, Sternb. p. SI. pi. 11. f. S, 8. 
In quarries at Radnitz in Bohemia. 
With regard to this, as well as the preceding genera, we have 
to repeat the remark which we made respecting ferns, namely, 
that they are all vegetables, furnished with a singular structure 
of organs subservient to respiration, and highly adapted for in- 
haling nutritious juices from the atmosphere. It is well known, 
that the Cacti, as well as most succulent plants, derive their ex- 
istence more from their relation to the air than to the earth ; 
and I consider the Yuccas, also, and Lychnophoras, which 
choose for their habitation a dry sandy soil, that has undergone 
little preparation by the decomposition of previously existing, 
vegetables, as peculiarly adapted for inhabiting the rude wastes 
of a recently-formed world, at that time destitute of vegetation, 
but much warmer than now. There may be some, who, in ob- 
jection to this opinion, may express their surprise that plants 
which in our times inhabit only dry, sandy, or rocky, exposed 
places, and which do not grow in the midst of trees, nor even 
thrive in their vicinity, should, in these primeval periods of the 
earth, have constituted lofty and dense woods, and have admits 
ted those genera among them, which, like the ferns, now vege- 
tate in damp and shady places. To this I reply, that it is not 
at all inconsistent with probability, that those plants, the Cacti 
namely, Lychnophorae, &c. which we still find occasionally as- 
sociated with Agavae, Bromeliae, and arborescent ferns in the 
tropical regions, being extended to an enormous magnitude by a 
vegetative power at that time much more vigorous, formed vast 
umbrageous woods, which, from the generation of much humi- 
