| SECOND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF PENNSYLVANIA - REPORT OF PROGRESS P. DESCRIPTION OF THE COAL FLORA OF PENNSYLVANIA AND OF THE CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES BY LEO LESQUEREUX; ©1879 |
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All Four Volumes: Scans and Webpage ©George Langford III, 2011 |
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ULODENDRON, Rhode. Goeppert, Geinitz, Heer and Stur have not separated this genus from Lepidodendron. Brongniart and Weiss are not positive in regard to the value or authority of this separation. But from Sternberg to Schimper most of the phytopaleontologists have admitted this generic division on reasons which seem indeed legitimate. Schimper has clearly exposed the essential characters which separate these two genera. His views fully agree with the observations made from American specimens, and exposed already in Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 434-35. 1st. The trunks of Ulodendron seem to have been simple or scarcely ramified, like those of Sigillaria. Except a small branch of Ulodendron minus on which remark is made in the description of the species, I have never seen any trace of division of the stems, though the collections of Mr. S. S. Strong and of Mr. R. D. Lacoe, have truncs of Ulodendron one meter long or more. 2d. The leaf scars or bolsters are scarcely variable in size, or not much larger upon trunks of great size than upon small ones. By the growth of the trees the bark is split lengthwise, and the intervals between the borders are filled by linear woody excrescences which sometimes expand laterally and partly cover the scars or the bark. All the phytopaleontologists have observed that kind of fissures on the bark. Though it is a mere result of growth, it indicates for the internal tissue a composition or disposition different from that of Lepidodendron. 3d. The inside scars of Ulodendron differ positively from those of Lepidodendron. When decorticated, they are merely punctiform, either deep points, or small mamillas, surrounded by a ring as in Atlas, Plate LXVI, f. 2a. On the same plate, f. 3, the corticated bolsters of Ulodendron majus, are represented with three vascular scars as in Lepidodendron; but under the epidermis these scars are not seen at all; under the first layer of bark they are mere points as in Atlas, f. 3a. Large specimens of this species are sometimes found without any scars of strobiles and are surely determined by the characters of these punctiform impressions. I have never been able to find any leaf attached to the stems, even the smallest branches are without remains of these organs. Schimper describes them as short, lanceolate, rigid, as seen from a specimen figured by Geinitz. The large disks placed in double series, which especially characterize this genus, are round or oval, and variable in size as they increase in diameter with the growth of the trees, from the base of the trunks upwards. They are generally marked in the center by a small circular mamilla, around which the leaf scars are concentrically placed as imbricated, gradually enlarging towards the borders, generally obscure disfigured impressions, sometimes totally erased or diversely shaped. Lindley and Hutton have considered the disks as resulting from the attachment of strobiliform inflorescences, or of cones of fructifications. Brongniart, per contra, regards them as scars of conical tubercles covered with leaf scars, their central part being an incipient branch or an adventive root. Schimper admits Ll. and Hutt. opinion, which seems indeed the more probable for the generality of the species. But some of the American specimens apparently represent different generic characters, implying the authority of the conclusions admitted by each of the authors named above. We have, for example, a small stem of Ulodendron minus, a dichotomous branch, mentioned above, four centimeters broad at its base where it is broken, abruptly enlarged to six centimeters at the point of division, with strobile-scars only one centimeter in diameter and contiguous, (eleven in number upon a stem fourteen centimeters long). They are marked by central circular dots, like remains of woody axes, one to two millimeters in diameter, transformed into hard shining coal, while the circular depressions around the central points are covered with a smooth epidermis on which the concentrical leaf scars are very obscurely marked. Upon some of these scars the epidermis, a thin hard strong pellicle, covers entirely the central axis while one of the disks seems to bear long scaliform thick leaves, radiating from the central mamilla, like the basilar scales of a cone. Another specimen Plate LXVII, f. 2, which I have described as a branch of Ulodendron has, on the borders, bud-like inflations represented upon the impression of the stem by deep hollows of the same form and character; for they are marked to the bottom of the cavity by the same kind of leaf scars as those of the borders of the stems. The specimen is a piece of cannel coal which in its soft state has taken the hollow cast of a branch fallen or deposited upon it. Now the small conical protuberances cannot be considered as incipient cones or strobiles. They are evidently bud-like excrescences, thus confirming by their characters Brongniart's opinion of their nature. A third specimen represents a small disk of Ulodendron punctatum which, broadly obovate, measures only two and a half centimeters long and seventeen millimeters in width towards the upper end where it is the largest. It has the inflated protuberance marking the point of attachment quite near the lower margin, and is covered with a thick epidermis like the whole disk. Therefore the top of the knobs is smooth without any trace of perforation. It is surrounded by two concentrical circles from which the striae generally seen upon the disks of this kind, Atlas, Plate LXV, f. 5a, radiate in diverging to the borders. From all appearance this is merely an adventive bud and evidently not the disk of a strobile. Does not this prove that in Ulodendron punctatum, at least, these disks are not scars of strobiles but branch scars, a character which seems already evidenced by the excentrical position and the peculiar shape of the point of attachment which, as far as I have seen in all my specimens, is not circular, but broadly oval or semi-lunar. In that case the genus Bothodendron established by Ll. and Hutt. for this peculiar form would be legitimate. Some of the large strobiles of the Carboniferous have been referred to Ulodendron species on account of the concordance in the size of the cones and of the scars upon the disks. This reference is very doubtful; for, as seen above, these strobiles or bud scars are originally small, scarcely one centimeter in diameter; the buds or flowers which they represent have been very early detached, and therefore the large strobiles do not seem to have any relation to the enlarged scars. They probably belong to Lepidodendron or Lepidophloios. | ||||||
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ULODENDRON COMMUTATUM, Schp., Plate LXVI, Figs. 2, 2a.
Schp., Paleont. veget., II, p. 40, Pl. L XIII, f. 1-6. Sagenaria Veltheimiana, (St.), Gein., Fil. d. Hayn. Kohlenbass, (ex parte), p. 51, Pt. V, f. 1, 2, 3. Schlumb. and Schp., Terr. de Trans. des Vosges, Pl. XXI. The above synonymy is copied from Schimper, loc. cit. Stem large; bolsters (decorticated) somewhat distant, elliptical, narrowed at both ends, slightly obtuse, convex, carinate, marked by a central round impression; disks (of strobiles) very large, broadly oval or nearly round, marked with the impressions of imbricating round scales. The specimen represents the characters of the species as far as known in a decorticated state. Schimper records in the description of this species the characters of the leaves, one and a half centimeters long, lanceolate, as they have been seen by Geinitz, and those of the corticated bolsters, taken from specimens referred by Goepp. and Gein. to Lepidodendron Veltheimianum. I have never seen another specimen but the one figured here. Atlas, f. 2a represents the central point of the leaf scars much enlarged. The disks do not show any central protuberence. Habitat — Subconglomerate coal of Alabama, Helena mines, communicated by Mr. T. H. Aldrich. | ||||||
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ULODENDRON MAJUS, Ll. and Hutt., Plate LXVI, Figs. 3, 3a.
Ll. and Hutt., Foss. fl. I, Pl. V. Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a, 1858, p. 875. Schp., Paleont. veget., II, p. 41. Phytolithus parmatus, Steinhauer, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., I, p. 286, Pl. VII, f. 1. Sigillaria Menardi, Lensq., Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p. 450, Pl. XLIII. Stem large; leaf scars rhomboidal-peltate, or with the lower border rounded, marked at the top, in well preserved specimens, by transversely oval inside scars, with three vascular points; decorticated bolsters transversely rhomboidal with the inside scars of the same form; disks of strobiles large, round, generally umbonate in the middle with the point of attachment slightly excentrical. The leaf scars are small and, as far as seen from American specimens, always of the same size, one centimeter from side to side, vertically six to seven millimeters. The scars with their epidermis, as represented in the upper part of Atlas, f. 3a, are very rarely observed, the surface being generally erased or deprived of the cortex. They are more commonly represented as in the lower part of Atlas, f. 3, or still more generally with the outline border only, without inside scar. On the under surface, the leaf scars are merely marked by a punctiform small mamilla. The disks are large, either marked by defaced leaf scars or by long parallel lines like superposed linear leaves. Among other American specimens seen of this species one especially, No. 581 of Mr. R. D. Lacoe's collection, is worth describing. It is evidently part of an old stem. The branch scars are opposite, horizontally and vertically at the same distance, sixteen centimeters, exactly circular, five centimeters in diameter, rugose; outside surface marked nearly in the center by a round small protuberance surrounded by smooth rings traversed by narrow striae. The leaf scars are mostly like those figured in Ll. and Hutt., but somewhat varied, not always half round at the base but rhomboidal, enlarged, broader in the lower than in the upper part, with the inside scars represented as in the lower part of Atlas, f. 3, or central, transversely rhomboidal, with a single vascular scar in the middle. The surface is cut by broad vertical keeled smooth ridges, some of which, one and a half centimeters broad and five to six millimeters high. The leaf scars are however of the same size as in smaller specimens. Habitat—Colchester, Ills., coal above the conglomerate. Pittston, Butler mine E, specimen described above. Sub-conglomerate coal, Montevallo, Ala., Mr. T. II. Aldrich. | ||||||
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ULODENDRON MINUS, Ll. and Hutt., Plate LXVI, Fig. 1.
Ll. and Hutt., Foss. fl., I, Pl. VI. St., Ft. d. Vorw., II, p. 185, Pl. XLV, f. 5. Schp., Paleont. veget., II, p. 48. Lepidodendron ornutissimum, Brgt., Hist. d. veg. foss., II, Pl. XIX. Ulododendron punctatum, St., Fl. d. Vorw., II, p. 186, Pl. XLV, f. 1. Lesqx., Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 488. Phytolithus parmatus, Steinhauer, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., p. 286, Pl. VI, f. 1. Stems of small size; disks circular, close, leaf scars small, upraised or convex, rhomboidal, marked in the lower part by a vertical short linear impression. As I consider this species distinct from the following described form, I have mentioned merely the synonyms which I refer to it. As far as I have seen from numerous specimens, the stems or branches vary from four to sixteen centimeters in width in a more or less flattened state. The leaf scars upon all have the same form as represented in the figure, and generally the same size, three to five millimeters only. The scars of the strobiles are more variable in size, from one to four centimeters in diameter, but always quite close to each other mostly contiguous. The largest specimen which came under my examination, a stem forty centimeters long, fifteen centimeters broad, flattened to five centimeters in thickness, has the disks nearly contiguous, four centimeters wide, exactly round, and the leaf scars five millimeters broad in both directions, while in the smallest stem, four centimeters broad (flattened), the disks, also contiguous, are thirteen millimeters broad and the leaf scars three millimeters. The same characters have been remarked upon all the specimens examined; sometimes however as in Atlas, f. 1, there is between the scars a little vertical space. A peculiar specimen representing the branches and the base of a cone of this species is described in remarks on the Genus. The specimen figured by Steinhauer, l.c., has the same characters. Habitat— Abundantly found in the subconglomerate measures of Alabama, Montevallo, communicated by Mr. T. H. Aldrich. Tennessee, Aetna vein, specimens in Prof. Jas. Safford's collection. Pittston, in Mr. R. D. Lacoe's cabinet, from Brown Coliery E and Seneca vein F. | ||||||
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ULODENDRON ELLIPTICUM, St., Plate LXV, Figs. 2-4.
St., Fl. d. Vorw., II, p. 186, Pl. XLV, f. 2. Lesqx., Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 436, Pl. XXII, f. 3; XXIII, f. 1-3. Lepidodendron ornatissimum, Brgt., Hist. d. Veg. foss., II, Pl. XVIII. Ulodendron minus, Schp., Paleont. Veget., II, p. 42. Stems large; leaf scars rhomboidal-ovate, close, acuminate and undulate at both ends; or more or less distant, merely acute, with intervals striate; disks large, broadly oval, distant, irregularly dotted and rugose, or marked by simple lines radiating from a large umbonate center to the borders. The bolsters or leaf scars of this species are distantly comparable to those of Lepidodendron Veltheimianum. They are however much smaller, scarcely one centimeter long, in the largest specimen, and five to six millimeters broad. The inside scar is always small, and as seen upon all the specimens examined, is marked in the middle by a single large vascular scar only. What I have said in the general remarks on this genus, in regard to the equal size of the leaf scars in specimens, parts of trees of different ages, is exemplified by the figures of this species; Atlas, f. 2, from a younger stem, having the scars contiguous, but of a size equal to those of Atlas, f. 3 and 4, made from fragments which shows the result of the increasing of the trees in the splitting of the bark into large fissures and the wider space between the leaf scars. The disks of this species are large, five to seven centimeters long, three and a half to four and a half centimeters broad, opposite (not alternate as in Ulodendron minus), generally equidistant in both horizontal and vertical directions, from eight to twenty centimeters apart upon the specimens examined. I have never seen them marked with a central mamilla as figured in Brgt., l.c. Habitat—It is common at Morris where no specimens of Ulodendron minus have been found. Also not rare at Pittston. Both collections of Mr. S. S. Strong and Mr. R. D. Lacoe have splendid specimens of it. The last are from Brown's colliery, E. vein. | ||||||
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Leaf scars distinctly rhomboidal, twice as long as broad, acute at both ends, margined; inside scars exactly central, small, transversely rhomboidal; disks oval, large, distant, pitted with oval impressions of leaves or rugose, with a distinct central unbonate mamilla. This species may be a mere variety of the former. It differs by the leaf scars narrower, margined, contiguous; by the inside scars exactly central, smaller, and the disks narrower and longer. From the character of the bolsters, this form bears to Lepidodendron rimosum the same relation as the former does to Lepidodendron Veltheimianum. The disks upon the specimens on hand are from four to eight centimeters long and only two to four centimeters broad, as far distant as in Ulodendron ellipticum, and all are marked by three concentrical zones diversely impressed by the scars of the scales. This however is of no account as a character. The specification is merely based upon the shape of the bolsters contiguous upon all the specimens, and the more narrowly oval form of the disks only half as broad as they are long. As in the farmer species, the disks are opposite. Habitat—Roof shale of the coal of Morris, Ill. | ||||||
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ULODENDRON PUNCTATUM, Ll. and Hutt., Plate LXV, Figs. 5, 5a.
Bothrodendron punctatum, Ll. and Hutt., Pos. fl., II, Pl. LXXX and LXXXI. Ulodendron Lindleyanum, St., Fl. d. Vorw., II, p. 185, Pl. XLV, f. 4. Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a, 1858, p. 875. Schp., Paleont. Veget., II, p. 42. Caulopteris? acanthophora, Lesqx., Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 458, Pl. XXVI, f. 3 and 4. Leaf scars in corticated specimens punctiform, disposed in quincunxial order; disks very large and distant, marked with furrows radiating from an excentrical protuberance to the borders. Most of the specimens of this peculiar species are very large, with epidermis destroyed. Atlas, f. 5, represents, in about one sixth of size, a specimen formerly in possession of Dr. Hildreth of Marietta; Atlas, f. 5a is the natural size of the bolsters which are finely preserved. Another specimen partly figured a long time ago from the collection of Mr. Dill of Newark, Ohio, has the disks fourteen centimeters long, ten centimeters broad, the inside scars quite near the lower borders and the surface of the intervals punctate. In the cabinet of Prof. J. P. Lesley at the University of Pennsylvania, there is a specimen of this species with disks quite as large. It is decorticated. The smallest specimen seen of the bolsters of the species is described in the remarks on the genus. The form described as Caulopteris acanthophora, l.c., is of very uncertain relation. It is represented by large specimens of bark, always distinctly punctate and by a branch two centimeters broad, with the surface equally dotted by the base of hooked scales or leaves, some of them still persisting upon the borders. I have seen specimens twenty to thirty square centimeters and could never find any distinct trace of the large scars either of Caulopteris or of Ulodendron, except a fragment showing part of a border, which would indicate for the disk a diameter of ten centimeters or more. The branch bears a semi-lunar impression which is indeed of a form analogous to that of the disks of Ulodendron punctatum, and the border of the large scar, Atlas f. 3, is marked with broad striae in right angle, exactly like those of f. 5a of our plate. The only dissent against this relation is the irregular position of the leaf scars. These hooked appendages may represent leaves spines or scales. They have not as yet been observed upon any other fragment. If these specimens truly represent Bothrodendron punctatum, as I believe, they confirm the remark made in the description of the genus in regard to the true nature of the disks as branch scars. The semi-lunar impressions in the upper part of these disks are related in shape to those of Stemmatopteris. The Genus Bothrodendron appears therefore to represent a group of arborescent plants intermediate to the Lycopodiaceae and the Ferns. Habitat—Mostly found in the conglomerate sandstone, base of the middle coal measures. I have seen an immense fragment attached to the roof of a cave near Louisa river, Ky. The locality of the large specimen of Prof. Hildreth is not mentioned on the labels. The small one is from Cannelton, Pa. The specimens described as Caulopteris acanthophora, in the Geol. Rept. of Ill., are from Colchester and Morris, Ill. | ||||||
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Trunks covered with elongated, semi-conical or truncate tubercles placed in spiral, more or less imbricated, leaving, after falling of, round convex marks, with a single vascular scar in the middle; leaves lone, linear, more or less inflated at the base, with a flat medial nerve. Of the specimens representing this genus I have seen only fragments with the persistent base of the leaves, like those of Atlas, Plate LXXIV, f. 14 and 15. The description of the leaves is made from Schp., Paleont. veget., II, p. 45. Brongniart does not consider as reliable or positive the characters which separate Knorria from Lepidodendron, and Goeppert identifies many of the species of Knorria of authors with Lepidodendron Veltheimianum. It is certain that this Lepidodendron has sometimes, in a decorticated state, conical obtuse bolsters which are similar to those of Knorria. The same also is seen, less distinctly however, upon sub-cortical scars of Sigillaria monostigma, Atlas, Plate LXXIII, f. 6. But these deformations are casual, while, as remarked by Schimper and other authors, the peculiar characters of Knorria are traceable through the successive layers of the bark. The species of this genus are rare in the American coal measures. | ||||||
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KNORRIA IMBRICATA, St., Plate LXXIV, Figs. 14 and 15.
Lepidolepis imbricata, St., Fl. a. Vorw., I, p. 39, Pl. XXVII. Knorria imbricata, St., ibid, p. 37. Goepp., Gatt., III, IV, Pl. II, f. 2, 4. Koech., Schlumb. and Schp., Terr. d. trans. d. Vosges, p. 332, Pl. XIII. Lesqx., Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p. 457. Schp., Paleont. veget., II, p. 46. Heer, fl. a. Baren, Isl., p. 41, Pl. X, f. 3; XI. Knorria longifolia, Goepp., Uebergsg., p.199, Pl. XXX, f. 1, 2. Koech., Schlumb. and Schp., l.c., p. 333, Pl. XIV-XIX. Knorria Schrammiana, Goepp., l.c., p. 201, Pl. XXX, f. 4. Koech., Schlumb. and Schp., l.c , Pl. XIII, f. b. Knorria acicularis, Goepp., l.c., p. 200, Pl. XXX, f. 3. Heer, Foss. fl. d. Baren, Isl., p. 42, Pl. X, f. 6, 7. Pinites pulvinaris an[d] mughiformis, St., l.c., II, p. 201, Pl. XLIX, f. 7, 5. Diplotegium truncatum, Lesqx., Geol. Rept. of Arks., II, p. 311, Pl. IV, f. 1. Tubercles of the trunks semi-cylindrical, conical, truncate, or obtuse; those of the branches small, papilliform, all closely imbricated. Besides the synonyms quoted above, Schimper enumerates a number of others which show how uncertain are the determinations of the species of the genus. The two more notable forms remarked from American specimens are figured, one without leaves or decorticated, Atlas f. 14, with conical obtuse bolsters; the other, Atlas f. 15, with the base of leaves truncate, as they appear after their disruption from the stem. Other specimens have the bolsters shorter and more enlarged at the base, others have them acuminate and much narrower, referable to Knorria acicularis, Goepp. An instructive specimen of this last species is a small stem, five and a half centimeters in diameter, flattened by compression to two centimeters in thickness, the scars in the middle of the stems being needle form, cylindrical. acuminate, about one centimeter long, nearly two millimeters thick, and five millimeters distant in the spiral direction. This part exactly represents Knorria acicularis, as figured by Goepp., Fl. d. Uebergsg, Pl. XXX, f. 3. On both sides of the stem, however, the scars disappear, first becoming shorter, more enlarged, convex, similar to those of Schrammiana, Goep. ibid., f. 4, and nearer to the borders they are effaced into concave small impressions, comparable to those of a small Stigmaria, or to those of f. 5, same plate described by Goepp. as Ancistrophyllum Stigmariaeformis. When the upper coaly layer covering the scars of the specimens is taken out, the decorticated. surface appears closely punctate like shagreen. Another specimen in Mr. R. D. Lacoe's collection, nearly two meters in length, distantly dichotomous, forking twice in the whole length, thirty-five centimeters broad at its broken base and there flattened to ten centimeters in thickness, shows the scars more or less distinct, generally of the same shape as in Atlas, f. 14. After erasion of the bolsters, the under-scars are small and oval. The same collection has a large number of finely preserved specimens of the same species, all variable in size and obtained from different localities around Pittston, where the vein of the Seneca Coal Company is worked. The same characters are remarked upon all of them, none showing any bolsters which could indicate a relation to Lepidodendron Veltheimianum, or any other species of this genus. Habitat—Sub-conglomerate coal of Ill., Mercer Co.; of Arks., etc. Lower coal strata in the Anthracite basin of Penn'a; Sharp mountain near Pottsville; Seneca vein F and. Boston vein B, Pittston. | ||||||
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Stems of medium size, dichotomous; cortex tuberculate; spaces intermediate to the tubercles marked with rhomboidal scars; decorticated surface covered with punctiform round or oval papillae, obtuse or perforated in the center, placed in spiral order. The relative characters of the plants of this division, and their appropriation, are still uncertain. The large tubercles, placed in quincunxial order, are, as seen by our specimens, either flattened and perforated at the top, or entirely covered, like the stems, with scars of scales or of leaves, and obtuse at the top, without trace of perforations. Some authors consider these tubercles as the inflated base of leaves and the papillae of the surface as scars marking the points of attachment of scales. It is not well possible to understand the position of leaves distantly placed at the top of tubercles sometimes very large, while, as seen, P1ate LXXXVII, f. 1, (this volume) the stems bear contiguous transversely rhomboidal scars like those of the leaves of Ulodendron, the buds or tubercles being covered with these scars, even to the top. Mr. Binney, of Manchester, in his Observations on the structure of fossil plants of the Carboniferous, Part III, 1812, after reviewing the opinions of the authors on the nature of Halonia, p. 82 to 89, concludes his researches on the structure of the plants of this genus with the following remarks:
Prof. Williamson, exposing the result of his researches upon the same kind of fossil plants, Manchester Phil. Trans., June, 1871, arrives at different conclusions, p. 225:
Prof. Schimper, who had already briefly exposed the same opinion in his Paleont. veget. II, p. 52, reviews the subject again, (ibid., III, p. 541-543,) supporting especially his opinion on the character of a well preserved specimen of Halonia (Cyclocladia) discovered by Feistmantel, in Bohemia, as seen from the figure of a fragment in Schp. loc. cit., Pl. CVIII, f. 11. The American specimen described below as Halonia tuberculata, is in a far better state of preservation as are also those from which the other species of Halonia have been established. They appear to represent the characters of these tubercles like those of the disks of Ulodendron, as being sometimes mere adventive buds of branches, or sometimes base of strobiles. The vegetable fragments referable to Halonia are limited to the Carboniferous formations and represent few species in always scarce, rarely well preserved specimens. I refer to this genus two species of an intermediate type uniting the characters of Cyclocladia and Ulodendron. | ||||||
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HALONIA TUBERCULATA, Brgt., Plate LXXIV, Fig. 9; LXXXVII, f. 1.
Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 451, Pl. XXIX, f. 1. Brgt., Hist. d. Veg. foss., II, Pl. XXVIII, f. 1-3 (not described.) Halonia regularis, Ll. and Hutt., Foss. fl., III, Pl. CCXVIII. Cyclocladia ornata (St.), Gola., flor. Sarraep., foss., I, p. 20, Pl. III, f. 11. Tubercles large, disposed in quincunxial or spiral order at regular distance, button like, conical-obtuse, open, irregularly deeply grooved at the top, or more acute, entire and closed; leaf scars obscurely transversely rhomboidal; decorticated surface punctate. The tubercles of our specimen are a little larger than those in Brongniart's figures, l.c., a result of the difference in the size of the branches. But the characters are exactly the same. The French author represents the top of the tubercles as irregularly pitted around the central part which in some of them is marked by a large round scar. Halonia regularis, Ll. and Hutt., l.c., has the tubercles longer more acute and apparently closed at the top. The branches are also smaller and the size of the tubercles may correspond to that of the stems. It may be however a different species. But evidently Halonia tortuosa of the English authors is not identifiable to Halonia tuberculata of Brgt., which, like the American specimen from which my figure was made, represents the decorticated fragments of Cyclocladia ornata, Gold., l.c. Traces of scars of leaves are still seen on the right side of the stem, Atlas, f. 9, near its base. They are transversely rhomboidal outlines, too obscure to give positive evidence of their attribution. But the survey has recently obtained a most beautiful specimen of the cortex of this species with the leaf scars perfectly distinct. It is an impression into a very soft grained sandstone. A part of it is here figured from a cast made in order to have the tubercles in relievo and to more distinctly see the characters of the branch. The tubercles, about two centimeters broad at the base, are button like, one centimeter high, truncate at the top into a circular smooth space one centimeter in diameter, hollowed into an obconical depression closed by a ring, two millimeters in diameter, surrounding a semi-globular papilla, perforated by a central point. In some of the tubercles the circular depressions or rings deepen to the center, making thus a central obconical cup without trace of perforations at its base. The intervals between the tubercles are not large, vertically one and a half centimeters, deeply marked by transversely rhomboidal leaf scars which become irregular on the side of the tubercles, but are perfectly distinct up to the circular flattened top which they surround. These leaf scars average five millimeters in diameter and two vertically. They are dotted in the middle of their smooth surface by a point or vascular scar. The deeply impressed borders between them are one millimeter broad. The identity of this specimen, or of Cyclocladia ornata, Gold., to Halonia tuberculata, Brgt., as far at least as the species is represented by the author, l.c., Pl. XXVIII, f. 1, 2, cannot be doubted. For the fragments of cortex left upon the. specimen of that f. 2 have the surface traced by enlarged rhomboidal leaf scars. F. 3, however, may belong to a different species. Though it may be, the specimen from Illinois which was described as Halonia tuberculata? Atlas, Plate LXXIV, f. 9, is identified with the one recently found in Penn'a, which is evidently the same as Cyclocladia ornata, Gold. The German author has also represented the leaf scars on a fragment of the bark on the left corner near the base of his figure, 1.c. In this species the tubercles appear to represent the base of fruit or flower bearing cones. Habitat—Sub-conglomerate coal measures, Chester Co., Ill. The fine specimen mentioned above was found three miles south of Oil City, Venango Co., Penn'a, at the base of the conglomerate sandstone. Communicated by Mr. H. Martyn Chance. | ||||||
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HALONIA TORTUOSA, Schp., Plate LXI, Figs. 1-2.
Schp., Paleont. veget., (excl. syn.), II, p. 54, Pl. LXVI, f. l and 2. Eichw., Leth. Ross., I, p. 148, Pl. XI, f. 1-4. Stems smaller; tubercles in quincunxial order or alternate in vertical rows, variable in distance, small, half globular, perforated in the center; cortex marked by transversely rhomboidal leaf scars (as seen in Schp., f. 1, 2, copied from Eichwald); surface under the cortex dotted by small round smooth papillae. The two figures of our plate represent both sides of the same specimen. It is a stem, three centimeters in horizontal diameter, flattened to two centimeters in vertical thickness, dichotomous, with branches in an open angle of divergence. The upper surface bears two parallel rows of tubercles, nearly alternate, one and a half centimeters distant, and the lower surface also two rows, placed near the borders, more distant, or a little more than two centimeters apart. This difference in the horizontal distance of the tubercles, the oval circumference of the stem, and the position of the tubercles near the borders on the lower side, which is nearly flat in the middle, prove that the stem has not been flattened by compression, but that it is in its original shape and that its natural position was not vertical but horizontal or prostrate, and that therefore we have here a fragment of a plant growing and expanding its branches upon the ground. The broad angle of their divergence already indicates this disposition. This character seems to confirm the opinion of Binney on the nature of these plants which he regards as the roots of Lepidodendon or Ulodendron. But against this hypothesis, we have, as remarked by Schimper, the evidence of leaf scars covering the space between the tubercles. It is not necessary to consider these plants as roots, but as primordial stems, growing and expanding horizontally upon the ground. In this case, as Stigmariae, which are the creeping primordial stems of Sigillaria, partake in their structure of some of the characters of this last genus, the primordial stems of Ulodendron or Lepidodendron might equally well as creeping stems represent the first mode of life of plants of these Genera, and have some of the characters which appear later more distinct and modified in erect or standing trees. The same consideration may be brought to mind in reading the description of the other fragments referable to this genus. The tubercles of this species, as far as known, are not impressed with any traces of leaf scars. They are entirely smooth. The central vascular scar is very distinct; but remarkably enough, when the tubercles are partly or totally cut or destroyed by erosion, the round smooth surface left in their place is without point or trace of vascular scar. This is seen upon the specimen figured here as well as upon those represented by Eichwald. This fact might, per contra, explain the opinion of Prof. Williamson, which supposed that the tubercles were merely subcortical. It is not possible to doubt that this species is the same as that described by Schimper and Eichwald, l.c. But Halonia tortuosa, Ll. & Hutt., II, Pl. LX XXV, is a different plant, rather referable to Halonia dichotoma, Gold. Flor. Sarraepp., p. 20, Pl. III, f. 12, which has the leaf scars vertically rhomboidal, the branches nearly in right angle to the stems, or not really dichotomous, the tubercles in irregular position, all characters remarked in both Ll. & Hutt. and Gold. figures. Habitat—The specimen, kindly communicated by Mr. Mr. Wm. Gifford, was found in a bed of sandstone toward the base of the coal measures, Peoria Co., Ill. | ||||||
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Stem small, flexuous, dichotomous with diverging branches; tubercles umbonate, ovate-obtuse, directed upwards, entirely covered with leaves, as seen by the impressions of their scars, which are broadly transversely rhomboidal, marked in the center by an oval mamilla surrounding a vascular point. That this fragment should be referred to Ulodendron rather than to Halonia, is possible. I am unable to decide. It has the leaf scars of Ulodendron majus, with a central mamilla and vascular scar like those of Uludendron commutatum; but the tubercles are evidently buds of branches which cannot be compared to the disks of Ulodendron, and are rather like the tubercles of Halonia. These adventive buds of branches are about one centimeter long, nearly as large at the base, oblique to the main stem, marked with leaf scars to the top, which is without trace of perforation. The figure is copied from an impression of the stem, into pure Cannel coal. It has preserved all the details of the configuration as distinctly as if the specimen had been cast in plaster. The cavities of the surface are impressions of buds of the stems driven into the soft mould, and, of course, similar to those of the border. The stem is two and a half centimeters in diameter, half cylindrical, oval in its cross section, narrowed at the base, as are also the branches at the forking, wherefrom they gradually increase upward in thickness. The branch, diverging nearly in right angle, is short, cut at its top into four unequal obtuse lateral lobes like buds or branchlets irregularly disposed. Considering the whole fragment and its characters, it is scarcely possible to doubt that we have here, still more disti- nctly represented than in the former species, part of a creeping stem, or of a plant growing and expanding horizontally and flat upon the ground in the mud of the swamps. The adventive buds covered with leaf-scars, the irregular divisions of the lobes of the left branch, which resemble those of a rhizoma, cannot leave any doubt on the subject. The buds might represent sympodia upon these primordial stems, organisms which, continued and more fully developed, become fertile branches upon the fruiting or erect trunks of Ulodendron and Halonia. I consider them in that way and believe, as said above, that we have here, not roots, but primordial stems, bearing to Lycopodiaceae the same relation as Stigmaria bears to Sigillaria. I have of this species a much smaller branch, only one and a half centimeters in diameter, a fragment in pyrite, with the scars and buds in relievo. It has the same characters as the large specimen. The buds or tubercles are not placed in regular order. Habitat—Cannelton, Pa. Communicated by Mr. I. F. Mansfield. | ||||||
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HALONIA (ULODENDRON) FLEXUOSA, Gold., Plate LXI, Fig. 3.
Ulodendron flexuosum, Gold., Flor. Sarraep., I, Pl. II, f. 10 (not described.) Stein small, flexuous between the tubercles, which are alternate and lateral; corticated leaf-scars vertically rhomboidal, represented under the cortex by oval, acute, small papillae, each with a distinct vascular point. The specimen which I refer to this species is a cylindrical branch two and a half centimeters in diameter and thus much smaller than the one figured by Goldenberg, which is eight centimeters broad. The characters seem however to be the same, at least from the position of the tubercles and the decorticated leaf-scars. In my specimen the top of the tubercles is conical, obtuse, without any central scar; while in Goldenberg's figure, it is represented as flattened, with a disciform cicatrice, like the disks of Ulodendron. This difference is probably caused by difference of age. The description of the leaf-scars upon the cortex is taken from Goldenberg's specimen, my own being entirely decorticated. No description is made of the species by the author. He merely remarks in table of explanation of the plates, I, p. 37, that one sees, from the specimen figured, how the genus Ulodendron represents the forms of Lepidodendron by analogy of dichotomous divisions in the plants of both genera. Habitat—Pittston, seen in Mr. R. D. Lacoe's collection, No. 582. | ||||||
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HALONIA PULCHELLA, Lesqx., Plate LXI, Fig. 5.
Geol. Rept. of Arks., II, p. 311, P1. III, f. 3. Cyclostigma pulchellum, Schp., Paleont. Veget., III, p. 541. Stem small, cylindrical; scars small, semi-spherical, close, in spiral order. The stem is simple, thirteen millimeters in diameter, cylindrical, and of the same size in its whole length. The small half globular smooth tubercles, a little more than one millimeter broad, are separated by equal smooth intervals of about the same width. The branch bears in the middle a deep irregular nearly semi-lunar scar, of a character analogous to those of Ulodendron punctatum and may be a branch-scar. Schimper refers this fragment to Cyclocostigma, a reference which seems to disagree on account of the large disk-like scar. Halonia gracilis, Ll. and Hutt., Foss. fl., II, Pl. LXXXVI, represents a simple stem of the same size, with leaf scars rhomboidal upon the cortex, and distant semi-lunar branch-scars, like the one marked on Atlas, f. 5. The difference therefore is merely in the form of the leaf-scars which are apparently decorticated upon my specimen. Habitat—Sub-conglomerate Coal measures of Arkansas, Male's coal bank, middle fork of White river. One specimen only. | ||||||
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Stem of medium size; tubercles in regular spiral order, equidistant, transversely oval, covered with a thin hard convex smooth cortex; subcortical scars rhomboidal-oval, inflated on the borders, marked upon the central narrow depression by three round vascular points; surface of the stem smooth or irregularly dotted. The fragment of stem, originally cylindrical, is thirty centimeters long, four and a half centimeters broad, reduced by compression to a thickness of about one centimeter. The tubercles are all of equal size, one centimeter in horizontal, eight millimeters in vertical direction. Their surface is a hard stony pellicle or bark, slightly convex, elevated in the center about two millimeters above the borders, smooth like the stem, which is merely irregularly dotted by distant points or small rugosities. Under the cover or upper layer of bark of the tubercles, there is a deep cavity generally filled with carbonaceous powder easily taken out, and the bottom is a broadly transversely rhomboidal scar inflated on the borders (Atlas, f. 1a enlarged), dotted with three vascular points like those of the inside scars of Lepidodendron. The disposition of the scars is perfectly concordant in the whole length of the stem of which the part figured is merely a fragment; their distance is also exactly the same, about one centimeter from center to center in the direction of the spiral in 5-11. I do not know indeed to what group of the Lycopodioceae of the coal this plant or stem is more positively referable. The tubercles have somewhat the form of those of Halonia; the subcortical scars resemble, as seen above, the inside scars marking the point of attachment of leaves of Lepidodendron; but they are not on the surface, the hard cortical layer covering them all being evidently part of the plant and truly organic; hence we have here a kind of stricture which might represent a rhizoma with some of the organs of the plants in an adventive undeveloped state. This confirms Prof. Williamson's opinion exposed above that the projecting tubercles of Halonia were confined to the inner parenchyma of the bark, as seen in the fragment or species which he had for examination. Habitat—I owe the communication of the specimen figured to Mr. Wm. Gifford. It was found with other fragments of the same plant above coal vein No. 6, Peoria Co., Ill. | ||||||
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