56 i NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
of 23 inches still has a diameter of 2 feet. In other cases, the nar- 
rowing from the bulbous base to the trunk is more rapid and more. 
striking. One stump standing 3 feet high has a circumference at the 
base of 1014 feet (diameter 40 inches) and at a height of 2 feet a 
circumference of 6 feet 3 inches (diameter 23.8 inches) ; another, 
about 3 feet high has a circumference at the base of 9 feet (diameter 
34 inches) ; at the top of 3 feet 1 inch (diameter 11.7 inches). In 
both these cases the narrowing is gradual. In two of the most 
recently acquired specimens, in fact the best specimens we have, the 
narrowing is very strikingly, in one case very abruptly, shown. One 
has a height of 3 feet and a circumference at the base of 6 feet 3 
inches (diameter approximately 23.8 inches), but at a height of 14° 
inches, a circumference only of 4 feet 3 inches (diameter approxi- 
mately 16 inches), while at the top the circumference is about 3 feet 
(see plate 3). Another has a height of 34 inches and a circumfer- 
ence at the base of 7 feet 6 inches (diameter approximately 25.4 
inches); at the height of 14 inches a circumference of 6 feet 5 
inches; at the height of 24 inches, a circumference of 4 feet 4 inches; 
at the height of 34 inches a circumference of 3614 inches (diameter 
11.6 inches). This last example (plate 4) shows a case of very 
gradual narrowing of the trunk; the preceding example shows an 
abrupt change from the enlarged base to the trunk. 
Parts of the trunk, above the heights shown in the stumps, have 
been found infrequently and in a flattened condition. The Museum 
has two of these specimens, one over 4 feet long and the other over 
3 feet long. In the case of the latter, which was taken from the 
underside of an overhanging ledge, as much again of the trunk had 
been broken away and lost; and, beyond the section obtained, the 
trunk continued into the solid rocks with little, if any, diminution 
in width. Another specimen, too poor to be removed from the rock, 
shows some 12 feet of slender trunk which must represent a portion 
near the top of a large trunk or the trunk of a very small tree. Among 
the Carboniferous seed ferns some were of the “scrambler” type, 
with long slender stems climbing among other plants; some were 
herbaceous, and others were tall and stout like the tree ferns. The 
_ Carboniferous Ly ginopteris belongs to the “ scrambler ” type, 
but Eospermatopteris of the Upper Devonian belongs to 
the type with tall, stout trunks. The largest of these trees must have 
~eached heights of at least 30 to 4o feet. As yet the Museum has not 
located any specimens of the trunk showing the attachment of the 
