A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."

by Gideon Algernon Mantell

"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.

When Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay was published, the true nature of these fossil remains was unknown. It was supposed by Messrs. Lindley and Hutton, that the original was an aquatic plant, having a short dome-shaped trunk, from which radiated numerous long horizontal branches; and that when the plant was perfect, and the branches floating on the water, its appearance resembled that of an Asterias.[20] This dome-shaped trunk is now known to be merely the base of the stem of the tree. See Supplementary Notes, art. [Stigmaria].

[20] Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay, vol. ii. p. 95.

Plate XXIII.