424 
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 
Ill the carbonifei’ous strata of Coalhrook Dale, and in many 
other coal-fields, elongated cylindrical bodies, called fossil 
cones, named Lepidostrohus by M. Adolphe Brongniart, are 
met with. (See Fig. 457.) They often form the nucleus of 
Fig. 45T. 
a 
a. Lejndostrohus ornatus. Broug. Shropshire ; half natural size.— h. Portion of a sec¬ 
tion, showing the larre sporangia in their natural position, and each supported by 
its bract or scale.— c. Spores in these sporangia, highly magnified. (Hooker, Mem. 
Geol. Survey, vol. ii., part 2, p. 440.) 
concretionary balls of clay-ironstone, and are well preserved, 
exhibiting a conical axis, around which a great quantity of 
scales were compactly imbricated. The opinion of M. Brong¬ 
niart that the Lepidostrohxts is the fruit of Lepidodendron 
has been confirmed, for these strohili or fruits have been 
found terminating the tip of a branch of a well-characterized 
Lepidodendron in Coalbrook Dale and elsewhere. 
EquisetaceoB.—To this family belong two fossil genera of 
the coal, Equisetites and Catamites, The Calamites were 
evidently closely related to the modern horse-tails (Equiseta) 
difiering principally in their great size, the want of sheaths 
Fig. 459. 
Calamites Sucowii, Broug.; natural size. Stem of Fig. 45S, as restored by 
Common in coal throughout Europe. Dr. Dawson. 
at the joints, and some details of fructification. They grew 
in dense brakes on sandy and muddy flats in the manner of 
modern Equisetacese, and their remains are frequent in the 
