of the genus _Cupania_ (_Amomocarpum_, of Brongniart;
_Cupanoides_, of Bowerbank); M. Brongniart considers the
original to have been related to the Cardamoms (_Amomum_).
Fig. 21. Probably a species of Cupanoides.
Figs. 20, & 22. Pericarp of a fruit; its affinities unknown.
Fig. 23. A piece of pyritous wood.
Fig. 25. A rolled specimen of _Nipadites_.
Figs. 24, & 26. Two fruits of plants of the Cucumber family
(_Cucumites_).
Figs. 27, & 29. Specimens of the stems of a species of extinct
Club-moss (_Lycopodites squamatus_); fossils of this kind
are abundant in the pyritous clay of Sheppey.
Fig. 28. A fragment of silicified wood, rounded by attrition;
from the gravel-pits at Hackney.
* * * * *
Figs. 15, & 17. I have purposely reserved the description of these
fossils for this place, because notwithstanding their close
resemblance to the aments or cones of a pine or larch, which
led the earlier collectors to regard them as fruits, they
do not belong to the vegetable but to the animal kingdom,
being the hardened excrementitious contents (_Coprolites_)
of the intestines of the fishes, with whose remains they are
associated in the chalk.[12] The specimens figured are from
Cherry Hinton, in Cambridgeshire; similar fossils occur in
the Chalk and Chalk-marl of Sussex, Kent, &c.
[Footnote 12: See Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 432; and Dr.
Buckland's Bridgewater Essays, vol. ii. pl. 15.]
[Illustration: Plate VII.]
PLATE VII.
Fossil Fruits of Palms.
Figs. 1-5. Splendid specimens of one of the most remarkable of the
fossil fruits that occur in the London clay of the Isle of
Sheppey. The nut in its pericarp or husk is shown in fig. 1,
the separate pericarp in fig. 2, and the nut itself in fig.
3. Figs. 4 and 5, represent another beautiful fossil of the
same species.
These fossil fruits, which Mr. Parkinson considered as belonging
to a species of Cocos, or Cocoa, and M. Brongniart referred to the
Pandanus or Screw-pine, Mr. Bowerbank has demonstrated to be closely
related to the recent _Nipa_, or Malucca Palm; a low shrub-like
monocotyledonous plant, that inhabits marshy tracts near the mouths
of great rivers, particularly where the waters are brackish.
Mr. Bowerbank has figured and described eleven species. The
species represented in this plate is distinguished as _Nipadites
Parkinsonis_: M. Brongniart had previously named it _Pandanocarpum
Parkinsonis_.[13]
[Footnote 13: See an account of an "Excursion to the Isle of
Sheppey," Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 897.]
The following is Mr. Bowerbank's description of these fossils:--
"The fruits of which the group I propose to name _Nipadites_ is
composed, are known among the women and children by whom they are
usually collected, by the name of '_petrified figs_.' The epicarp and
endocarp are thin and membranous; the sarcocarp is thick and pulpy,
composed of cellular tissue, through which run numerous bundles of
vessels. The cells are about the 8/100th part of an inch in diameter.
Nearly in the centre of the pericarp is situated a large seed, which,
when broken, is found to be more or less hollow. It is frequently
not more than half a line in thickness; but in perfect specimens it
presents the appearance of a closely granulated structure, in which
small apertures containing carbonaceous matter occasionally occur.
The seed in _Nipadites Parkinsonis_, consists of regular layers of
cells radiating from a spot situated near the middle of the seed, and
apparently enclosing a central embryo.
"If the habits of the plants which produced these fossil fruits were
similar to those of the recent _Nipa_, it will account for their
amazing abundance in the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey; which
formation, from the great variety of fossilized stems and branches,
mixed up with _asteria_, _mollusca_, and _conchifera_ of numerous
marine and fresh-water genera, is strikingly characterized as having
been the delta of an immense river, which probably flowed from near
the Equator towards the spot where these interesting remains are now
deposited."[14]
[Footnote 14: History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London
Clay. Van Voorst, London, 1840.]
Figs. 6, 7, & 8. Specimens of a seed-vessel, or nut, of an unknown
plant, often found in the strata of the coal measures. It is
called _Trigonocarpum olivæforme_, from its general shape.
From Leicestershire; it probably belongs to a plant of the
Palm family.
[Illustration: Plate VIII.]
PLATE VIII.
Petrified Stems and Woods.
Figs. 1-7, represent different sections and parts of some
remarkably beautiful and interesting silicified stems of an
extinct tribe of plants, related to the arborescent ferns, and
which are found in considerable abundance at Chemnitz, near
Hillersdorf, in Saxony. The name of _Psaronius_ is given to
the genus by M. Cotta.
Figs. 1, 2, 5, 7, are _P. helmintholithes_; figs. 3, 6, _P.
asterolithes_; figs. 5, 6, 7, are enlarged figures of the
transverse sections of some of the vessels forming the
vascular tissue.
From the stellular figure produced by transverse sections of the
vessels, this fossil wood has received the name of "_Staarenstein_,"
or Starry-stone. In the time of Mr. Parkinson, the tubes now known
to be the vessels of the vascular tissue, were supposed to have been
produced by some boring or parasitical animals.
Fig. 4. Transverse section of a stem of calcareous wood from the
Bath oolite.
Figs. 8, & 9. Calcareous fossil wood; the cylindrical cavities have
been formed by the depredations of the ligniverous boring
mollusk, the _Teredo_, and are now filled with translucent
calcareous spar. This kind of fossil was called "_Lapis
syringoides_" by the early collectors.
Fig. 10. Silicified wood; the perforations are supposed to have
been occasioned by the depredations of boring mollusca: the
cavities are filled with a white pellucid chalcedony.
[Illustration: Plate IX.]
PLATE IX.
Fossil Stems and Seed-vessels.
Fig. 1. The strobilus or cone of an extinct family of plants
whose remains are very abundant in the coal strata, and
which have largely contributed to the formation of the
mineral fuel now become so indispensable to the necessities
and luxuries of man. There are several kinds, and although
there can be no doubt that they are the seed-vessels of the
_Lepidodendra_ with which they are associated, yet but few
species are identified with their parent trees. The specimen
figured is the _Lepidostrobus ornatus_ of Lindley and
Hutton. From the coal measures of Coalbrook Dale.
Fig. 2. One of the so-called "Petrified Melons" of Mount Carmel.
Figs. 3 & 4. An unknown fossil body; possibly a coral.
Fig. 5. A vertical section of one of the "_Petrified Melons_"
from Mount Carmel. The fossil thus named by Mr. Parkinson
appears to be merely a siliceous nodule, having a cavity
lined with quartz crystals. There is, however, a legend
rife among the barefooted friars of Mount Carmel, that has
conferred a celebrity on these stones; it runs, that "on
this spot was a garden well stocked with melons, and that
the prophet Elias, who founded the monastery, once asking
the gardener for one of his melons, he with churlish humour
answered, they were not melons but stones: on which they
were immediately changed into stones, and so remain to this
day."
Figs. 6 & 7. Unknown vegetable fossils, highly metallic; fig. 6
appears to be a fragment of a cone.
Figs. 8 & 9, are nodules of pyrites, accidentally assuming the
form of fungi; they are not fossils, but simply masses of
inorganic mineral matter.
Fig. 10. Portion of the flattened stem of an extinct plant, from
the coal measures of Yorkshire, whose affinities are
uncertain; supposed to resemble the Yew-tree. It appears to
be similar to the fossil named _Knorria taxina_ by Messrs.
Lindley and Hutton in the British Fossil Flora. In that
beautiful work,--the continuation of which is much to be
desired,--the genus _Knorria_ comprises those fossil stems
in which the projecting scars of the petioles are densely
arranged in a spiral manner.[15]
[Footnote 15: Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 161.]
[Illustration: Plate X.]
PLATE X.
(Plates X. to XXXIV. inclusive, are from Artis's work on the Fossil
Remains of Plants, from the coal formations of Great Britain.)
"Columnar Hydatica."
Under the name _Hydatica_, Mr. Artis has described two species of
fossil plants, from the coal-mine near Wentworth, Yorkshire. The
originals appear to have been aquatic plants, having a horizontal or
creeping stem, sending up slender branches, which floated by their
leaves on the surface of the water.
The generic characters are, "Stem, arborescent, jointed, branched;
leaves, long, linear."
In the arrangements of Schlotheim and Brongniart, who consider only
the construction of the leaves, these plants would belong to the
genus _Poacites_.
The species figured is named _Hydatica columnaris_, or Columnar
Hydatica. The stem is branched all the way up, and ends in a
club-like head; the branches are numerous, simple, alternate, and
covered with parallel hair-like leaves.
Fig. 1. The plant of the natural size, imbedded in coal-shale;
fig. 2, a branch magnified, showing; the two linear series
in which the leaves are arranged.
[Illustration: Plate XI.]
PLATE XI.
"Prostrate Hydatica."
A splendid specimen of another species of _Hydatica_, spread out on
the surface of the coal-shale, as if expanded on the bosom of the
lake in which it grew: the length of the original, a part of which
only is figured in the plate, was eight feet, five inches.
This species is named by Mr. Artis, _Hydatica prostrata_. The stem is
jointed, and slightly striated; the joints are formed with irregular
sutures, whence arise tufts of linear leaves resembling those of our
common grasses.
Fragments of this fossil plant are abundant in the roofs of several
of the chambers whence the coal has been extracted, in Elsecar
Colliery, Yorkshire.
[Illustration: Plate XII.]
PLATE XII.
"Slender Myriophyllite."
The fossil here figured seems to approximate very closely to the
Hydatica; but Mr. Artis describes the plant under the generic name of
_Myriophyllites_;--_M. gracilis_. The stem is herbaceous and slender,
terminating in a point; it is thickly covered with hair-like leaves.
It was found imbedded horizontally, in detached masses, separated
from the great mass of vegetable matter which covers the coal, by an
intervening layer of shale. It is rarely met with in the same bed
with other vegetables, but generally in solitary and thin strata,
taking a horizontal position; so that by riving the shale which
contains these plants, numbers of them are disclosed on the same
surface. In its general aspect this fossil vegetable resembles the
trailing roots of some aquatic plants.
[Illustration: Plate XIII.]
PLATE XIII.
"Branched Calamite."
Long and large jointed stems, generally more or less flattened by
compression, and bearing some resemblance to a cane or bamboo, are
very abundant in the coal formations. Some of them attain many feet
in length, and are of a corresponding magnitude in circumference.
The original plants are supposed to have been related to the
_Equisetaceæ_, or Mare's-tail, and not to the _Bambusiæ_, and
other arborescent grasses. The stem is jointed, and longitudinally
striated, having annular impressions at the articulations.
The present species (_Calamites ramosus_) has the stem arborescent
and branched; the branches are cylindrical, striated, and inserted at
the articulations of the trunk; the articulations of the branches are
surrounded by a striated disk.
The stem has been found nine feet in length, and occurs both
horizontally and vertically, in sandstone, in Leabrook Quarry, near
Wentworth.
[Illustration: Plate XIV.]
PLATE XIV.
"Doubtful Calamite."
These fossil stems are from the same sandstone quarry as the Calamite
delineated in the previous plate.
They differ in some respects from the usual type of the genus,
hence the specific name (_Calamites dubius_). The striæ are narrow,
and have a fine groove running down the middle; the fifth or sixth
articulation is surrounded by a double line of large globular
indentations, one row belonging to each of the connected joints;
these imprints have apparently been left by a zone of some organs
which surrounded the articulations, and by its pressure left the
indented frill, shown in the upper extremity of fig. 2.
These stems are generally found compressed, and from two to three
feet in length. Their termination is unknown.
This species is figured by M. Ad. Brongniart in Hist. Veg. Foss. tab.
18, figs. 1-3.
[Illustration: Plate XV.]
PLATE XV.
"Pseudo-Bamboo Calamite."
(_Calamites pseudo bambusia_, of Sternberg.
---- _Suckovii_, of Brongniart, Hist. Foss. Veg. tab. 14.)
"This fossil was found in the clay which fills the fissures of a very
fine grit, called by the workmen 'Delf,' that forms a stratum from
twenty to twenty-five feet thick, in the quarry at Leabrook, near
Wentworth, in Yorkshire. Immediately under this stratum there is a
thin bed of very good coal; and at a considerable depth below this
bed, there is a second layer of coal, eight feet thick, which is
covered in particular places with immense masses of fossil plants."
The species here figured very closely resembles the Bamboos. The
stem is arborescent, and marked with parallel linear strife, which
are intercepted at the sutures; it is simple and cylindrical, and
contracted at the articulations; it occurs five feet or more in
length.
Fig. 1, represents part of the middle of a stem.
Fig. 2, shows the gradual upward diminution of the stem, and its
pointed termination.
[Illustration: Plate XVI.]
PLATE XVI.
"Short-jointed Calamite."
(_Calamites approximatus_, Sternberg.
---- ----, Brongniart, Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 24.)
This species of Calamite is characterized by the shortness and number
of the joints; these are intercepted by distinct articulations, and
have small compressed tubercles, forming a studded row round the
trunk. The articulations are about one-fifth the diameter of the stem
apart. The tubercular studs, or warts, are probably the cicatrices
of fallen leaves; they rise directly from the articulations, and not
from the lower termination of the striæ, as in the species figured in
the next plate.
The specimen was found imbedded horizontally in soft sandstone, at
the bottom of the rock in Hober Quarry, near Wentworth.
Fig. 1, represents a portion of the upper part of the trunk,
of the natural size, terminating at the top in a sharp
compressed point.
Fig. 2. An outline on a reduced scale, to show the proportionate
size of the stem.
[Illustration: Plate XVII.]
PLATE XVII.
"Ornamented Calamite."
(_Calamites decoratus_, Artis.
---- ----, of Brongniart, Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 14, figs. 1-5.)
In this species of Calamite the joints are short, and decrease in
length towards the summit, where they terminate in an enlarged
rounded head. The striæ are ornamented with tubercles at the bottom,
close to the articulation. The striæ are broader, and the tubercles
larger, towards the summit.
The stem is sometimes found two feet long, and from two to four
inches in diameter.
The situation of the tubercles at the lower extremity of the striæ,
is a striking feature of this species; and the termination of the
summit of the stem is remarkable for its obtuseness.
The specimen is from Leabrook Quarry, Yorkshire.
[Illustration: Plate XVIII.]
PLATE XVIII.
"Transverse Sternbergia."
(_Sternbergia transversa_, of Artis.
_Artesia_ ----, of Presl. Additions to Sternberg's _Flora der Vorwelt_.)
The stems known by the name of _Sternbergia_, (from Count Sternberg,
the author of the Fossil Flora,) appear to be related to the Yucca,
or to the Pandanus or Screw-pine.
Mr. Artis observes, that they bear considerable analogy to the stems
of the _Stapeliæ_ of our gardens; but still, the external form,
which Is the only character visible, does not furnish sufficient
ground for their being positively referred to that genus. The stem is
marked longitudinally with double keels or ridges, which terminate at
different heights spirally round the stem, and have small tubercles
at their terminations. There are likewise slight annular depressions,
mostly distinct, but in some places two or more unite.
The stem is straight, simple, and cylindrical, and is compressed
towards the summit. It is sometimes found six feet in length, and
from one to four inches in diameter. It is generally coated with a
carbonized bark.
Fig. 1, shows a portion of the stem of the natural size.
Fig. 2. The upper extremity, in which the tubercular terminations
of the double keels or ridges are seen at A, B.
Found associated with Calamites in the clay-bind of Leabrook Quarry.
[Illustration: Plate XIX.]
PLATE XIX.
"Fibrous Sigillaria."
(_Rhytidolepis fibrosa_, of Artis.)
Stems more or less flattened, with the external surface
longitudinally furrowed, and uniformly ornamented with rows of deeply
imprinted symmetrical figures, disposed with much regularity, are
among the most abundant vegetable remains in the coal formation.
These are named _Sigillariæ_, from the Latin word _sigillum_,
signifying a _seal_, in allusion to the extreme regularity of the
imprints on the surface. When found in an upright position, at right
angles to the plane of the stratum, the original cylindrical form
of the tree is commonly preserved; and many examples are now known
of groups of erect Sigillariæ, with their roots extending into the
surrounding clay or sandy loam; the roots proving to be the fossil
bodies called _Stigmariæ_, which were formerly supposed to be a
distinct family of aquatic plants.[16] The first discovery of this
highly interesting and unexpected fact was made by Mr. Binney.[17]
[Footnote 16: Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay, vol. i. p. 476.]
[Footnote 17: See "Supplementary Notes, p. 198."]
The specimen figured was found in an erect position in the sandstone
of a quarry at Rowmarsh, near Rotherham in Yorkshire.
The stem is simple, the furrows small and wavy, impressed with dots
on the ridges. The cicatrices are ovate, subpentagonal, with the
lower angles rounded, having a single gland near the lower extremity.
The stem is three feet long, and four inches in diameter.
The transverse section, as seen in fig. 1, shows traces of a double
concentric ring, as if produced by internal structure. Fig. 2,
displays the equality of the stem throughout its entire length, and
its abrupt termination. In fig. 3, is seen the cicatrix with its
single gland, for the attachment of the petiole or leaf-stalk. Fig.
4, indicates the undulating line of the top of the ridge.
"The originals of these fossils are supposed by M. Ad. Brongniart to
have constituted a peculiar family of coniferous plants, now extinct,
which probably belonged to the great division of gymnospermous
dicotyledons. In their external forms they somewhat resembled the
Cacteæ or Euphorbiæ, but were more nearly related by their internal
organization to the Zamiæ or Cycadeæ. The leaves and fruits of these
trees are unknown, for no satisfactory connexion has been established
between the stems, and the foliage and seed vessels with which they
are sometimes collocated."[18]
[Footnote 18: Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 138.]
[Illustration: Plate XX.]
PLATE XX.
"Sigillaria."
(_Euphorbites vulgaris_, of Artis.)
This species is characterized by the remarkable fish-like form of
the cicatrices left by the base of the leaf-stalks, and by the
rapid tapering of the upper part of the stem, as shown in the
reduced figure 1, which represents a specimen nine feet long, five
feet in circumference at the base, and only twenty-one inches in
circumference at the upper end.
The ridges, which at the superior extremity are simple and narrow,
and parted only by a single line, become at the lower part of the
stem wide and flat, and are separated by a groove of equal breadth,
as seen in fig. 3, which is taken from B, fig. 1.
Fig. 2, represents a portion towards the upper end, at A, fig. 1; and
exhibits the different appearance of the bark, and the under surface,
when the cortical investment is removed; the imprints in each case
differing very much in appearance.
The specimen from which the drawing was taken, was from a sandstone
quarry near Altofts, in Yorkshire. In one of the abandoned chambers
of the upper Elsecar coal-mine, seven trunks of this tree were
suspended freely from the roof, the largest of which was eight feet
in circumference.
[Illustration: Plate XXI.]
PLATE XXI.
"Ficoid Stigmaria."
(_Stigmaria ficoides_, of M. Brongniart, Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 17,
figs. 5, 6.
_Ficoidites furcatus_, of Mr. Artis.)
The fossil trunks or stems called _Stigmariæ_, or _Variolæ_, (from
the pits or areolæ with which they are studded,) occur as abundantly
in the coal formation as the _Sigillariæ_, of which tribe of plants
unequivocal proof has at length been obtained that they are the
roots. These bodies are more or less regularly cylindrical, and vary
in length from a few inches to fifteen or twenty feet, the largest
being several inches in diameter. Their surface is covered with
numerous oval or circular depressions, in the middle of each of which
there is a rounded papilla, or tubercle. These variolæ are disposed
round the stem in quincunx order. When these roots are broken across,
a small cylindrical core or pith is exposed, which extends in a
longitudinal direction throughout the stem, like a medullary column.
This central axis, which is often separable from the surrounding
mass, is composed of bundles of vascular tissue disposed in a
radiated manner, and separated from each other by medullary rays.
This internal organization presents the same correspondence with that
of the stems of Sigillariæ, as does the structure of the roots of a
dicotyledonous tree with that of its branches and stems.
The Stigmariæ are almost invariably present in the bed called the
"Under Clay," which underlies the coal, and when observed in this
situation, long tapering sub-cylindrical fibres are found attached to
the tubercles; and these processes or rootlets are often several feet
in length. Their form and mode of attachment are shown at C, D; the
rootlets terminate in bifurcations, as seen at A, B.
The specimen here figured is part of a root nearly six feet long, and
three inches in diameter; some of the rootlets were two feet long. It
is imbedded in shale; from Elsecar colliery.[19]
[Footnote 19: A Stigmaria with rootlets, many feet in length, is
placed over the doorway in the room devoted to fossil vegetables in
the Gallery of Organic Remains in the British Museum.]
[Illustration: Plate XXII.]
PLATE XXII.
"Warty Stigmaria."
(_Stigmaria ficoides_, Brongniart.
_Phytolithus verrucosus_, Martin's Petrificata Derbiensia, Pl. II.
_Ficoidites verrucosus_, of Artis.)
In this species of Stigmaria the tubercles vary considerably in size,
and give a verrucose, or warty, aspect to the surface. The specimen
figured on a small scale, fig. 2, and a portion of the natural size,
fig. 1, was between five and six feet in length, and four inches in
diameter. A groove visible on the external surface indicates the
inner axis, which by compression has been pressed from its natural
central position; see fig. 2, A, B, C, D: figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, show in
the corresponding transverse sections the position of this body.
The mode of attachment of the rootlets to the tubercle on the main
root, is represented fig. 5. Fig. 3, exhibits the characters of the
two kinds of variolæ, or tubercles.