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Professor Goppert, after examining the fossil vegetables of the coal-fields of Germany, has detected, in beds of pure coal, remains of plants of every family hitherto known to occur fossil in the carboniferous rocks. Many seams, he remarks, are rich in Sigillariae, Lepidodendra, and Stigmariae, the latter in such abundance as to appear to form the bulk of the coal.
It was also observed that, while in the overlying shales, or "roof" of the coal, ferns and trunks of trees abound without any Stigmariae, and are flattened and compressed, those singular plants of the underclay most commonly retain their natural forms, unflattened and branching freely, and sending out their slender rootlets, formerly thought to be leaves, through the mud in all directions.
It was noticed that above the coal, in the roof, stigmariae were absent, and that the stems of trees which occurred there, had become flattened by the weight of the overlying strata. The stigmariae on the other hand, abounded in the underclay, as it is called, and were not in any way compressed but retained what appeared to be their natural shape and position.
Stigmaria ficoides, Brong. 1/4 natural size. Stigmaria ficoides, Brong. Surface of another individual of same species, showing form of tubercles. In the sea-cliffs of the South Joggins in Nova Scotia, I examined several erect Sigillariae, in company with Dr. Dawson, and we found that from the lower extremities of the trunk they sent out Stigmariae as roots.
Vegetation of the Coal Period. Ferns, Lycopodiaceae, Equisetaceae, Sigillariae, Stigmariae, Coniferae. Angiosperms. Climate of the Coal Period. Mountain Limestone. Marine Fauna of the Carboniferous Period. Corals. Bryozoa, Crinoidea. Mollusca. Great Number of fossil Fish. Foraminifera.
Sometimes, however, it is a soft clay, at others it is mixed with sand, but whatever the composition of the underclays may be, they always agree in being unstratified. They also agree in this respect that the peculiar fossils known as stigmariae abound in them, and in some cases to such an extent that the clay is one thickly-matted mass of the filamentous rootlets of these fossils.
The connection of the roots with the stem, previously suspected, on botanical grounds, by Brongniart, was first proved, by actual contact, in the Lancashire coal-field, by Mr. Binney. The fact has lately been shown, even more distinctly, by Mr. Richard Brown, in his description of the Stigmariae occurring in the under-clays of the coal-seams of the Island of Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia.
All doubt was, however, finally dispelled by the discovery by Mr Binney, of a sigillaria and a stigmaria in actual connection with each other, in the Lancashire coal-field. Stigmariae have since been found in the Cape Breton coal-field, attached to Lepidodendra, about which we have already spoken, and a similar discovery has since been made in the British coal-fields.
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