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I.—The Cryptogamic Forests of the Coal Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

William Carruthers
William Carruthers
Affiliation:
British Museum.
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Extract

The student of fossil botany encounters greater difficulties in his efforts to restore the vegetation of former epochs in the earth's history, than those which beset the labours of the comparative anatomist in his restoration of extinct animals. These difficulties arise chiefly from two causes: First, the absence in the vegetable kingdom of a substance which would resist decay like the solid skeleton found in all the vertebrate, and in many of the invertebrate members of the animal kingdom, causes the fragments of plants which have escaped decomposition to be preserved much less perfectly than the remains of animals. Carbonaceous stains or amorphous casts are the most frequent indications of the former vegetation of the globe; specimens exhibiting structure are comparatively rare; and it is such specimens only that give certain evidence of the nature and affinities of the organisms to which they belong.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 6 , Issue 61 , July 1869 , pp. 289 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1869

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References

page 289 note 1 Being the substance of a lecture delivered before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, at the Weekly Evening Meeting on Friday, April 16, 1869, Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.D. D C.L. F.R.S., President, in the Chair. The Illustrations have been kindly lent by the Council, together with permission to reprint this, valuable contribution to Fossil Botany.—EDIT.

page 292 note 1 On the Structure of the Fruit of Catamites. Seeman's Journal of Botany, vol. v. (1867), p. 349, Pl. 70.Google Scholar

page 293 note 1 On the Structure and Affinities of Lepidodendron and Calamites. Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin. vol. viii. (1866) p. 495, Pl. 8 and 9.Google Scholar

page 293 note 2 On the Flora of the Carboniferous Strata, Part I. By E. Binney, W.. Palæont. Soc. vol. xxi., 1868.Google Scholar

page 295 note 1 Monographie des Sphenophyllum d' Europe. Coemans, Par E. and Kickz, J. J.. Bulletin Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 2nd Ser. vol. xviii. (1864), No. 8.Google Scholar

page 296 note 1 Prof. Schimper has more recently described and figured the same fruits under the name of Calamostachys Binneyana in his Traité de Paléontologie Végétale, vol. i. (1869), p. 330.Google Scholar

page 296 note 2 Mr. Binney has beautifully illustrated the structure of the stem and fruit of Calamites in a series of drawings from specimens in his rich collection, published by the Palæontographical Society in the end of last year.

page 296 note 3 On some Fossil Plants, showing structure. By Binney, E. W.. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xviii. (1862), p. 106, Pl. 4—6. Phil. Trans., 1865.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 298 note 1 Some account of Triplosporite. By Brown, R.. Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xx. (1851), p. 469, Pl. 33 and 34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 298 note 2 Notice sur un fruit de Lycopodiacées fossiles. Brongniart, Par M.. Comptes Rendus, vol. lxvii., 08. 17, 1868.Google Scholar —Translated in Seemann's, Journal of Botany, vol. vii. (1869) p. 1.Google Scholar

page 298 note 3 On the Structure and Affinities of some Lepidostrobi. By Hooker, J. D.. Memoirs of Geol. Surv., Vol. ii., Pt. 2 (1848), p. 440, Pl. 3–10.Google Scholar

page 298 note 4 On an Undescribed Cone from the Carboniferous Beds. Geol. Mag., Vol. II. (1865), p. 433. Pl. 12.Google Scholar

page 299 note 1 I have given the precise measurement of these spores in a Notice of some Plant Remains from Brazil. Geol. Mag., Vol. VI. (1869), pp. 153, 154.Google Scholar

page 299 note 2 Observations sur la Structure intérieure du Sigillaria elegans. Brongniart, Par A.. Archives du Mus., Vol. i. (1831) p. 405.Google Scholar