468 
LEPIDODENDRON. 
dodendron are enumerated in M. Ad. Brongniart’s 
Catalogue of fossil plants of the coal formation. 
The internal structure oftheLepidodendron has 
been shewn to he intermediate between Lycopo- 
diaceae and Coniferae,* and the conclusions which 
Prof. Bindley draws from the intermediate con- 
dition of this curious extinct genus of fossil plants, 
are in perfect accordance with the inferences 
which we have had occasion to derive from ana- 
logous conditions in extinct genera of fossil ani- 
mals. “ To Botanists, this discovery is of very 
high interest, as it proves that those systematists 
are right, who contend for the possibility of cer- 
tain chasms now existing between the gradations 
of organization, being caused by the extinction 
of genera, or even of whole orders ; the existence 
of which was necessary to complete the har- 
mony which it is believed originally existed 
in the structure of all parts of the Vegetable 
kingdom. By means of Lepidodendron, a better 
passage is established from Flowering to Flower- 
less Plants, than by either Equisetum or Cycas, 
or any other known genus.” Lindley and Hut- 
tons Fossil Flora, vol. ii. page 53. 
* See annual Report of the Yorkshire Phil. Society for 1832- 
Witham’s Fossil Vegetables, 1833, PI. 12. 13. and Lindley an^ 
Hutton’s Fossil Flora. PI. 98 and 99. 
