430 
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 
Fi°:. 473. there is every proba¬ 
bility that it is a true 
member of this order. 
There can at least be 
no doubt as to the 
high grade of its or¬ 
ganization, and that 
it belongs to the 
monocotyledonous 
angiosperms. Mr. 
Carruthers has care¬ 
fully examined the 
original specimen in 
the Botanical Muse¬ 
um, Edinburgh, and_ 
thinks it may have 
been an epiphyte. 
Climate of the Coal 
Period. — As to the 
climate of the Coal, 
the Ferns and the 
Coniferse are perhaps 
the two classes of plants which may be most relied upon as 
leading us to safe conclusions, as the genera are nearly allied 
to living types. All botanists admit that the abundance of 
ferns implies a moist atmosphere. But the coniferge, says 
Hooker, are of more doubtful import, as they are found in 
hot and dry, and in cold and dry climates; in hot and moist, 
and in cold and moist regions. In I^ew Zealand the coniferse 
attain their maximum in numbers, constituting -^^-2 part of all 
the flowering plants; whereas in a wide district around the 
Cape of Good Hope they do not form y^o- of the phenogamic 
flora. Besides the conifers, many species of ferns flourish in 
New Zealand, some of them arborescent, together with many 
lycopodiums; so that a forest in that country may make a 
nearer approach to the carboniferous vegetation than any 
other now existing on the globe. 
h 
Pothocites Grantonii, Pat. Coal-measures, Edinburgh. 
a. Stem and spike; ^ natural size. b. Remains of the 
spathe magnified, c. Portion of spike magnified. 
d. One of the calyces magnified. 
MARINE FAUNA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 
It has already been stated that the Carboniferous or 
Mountain Limestone underlies the coal - measures in the 
South of England and Wales, whereas in the North, and in 
Scotland, marine calcareous rocks partly of the age of the 
Mountain Limestone alternate with shales and sandstones, 
containing seams of coal. In its most calcareous form the 
Mountain Limestone is destitute of land-plants, and is loaded 
