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

Plate XXIV.

PLATE XXIV.

"Crested Aspidiaria."

(Aspidiaria cristata, of Presl.
Sigillaria appendiculata, Brongniart.
Aphyllum cristatum, Artis.)

The fossil here represented is part of the stem of a tree nearly forty feet long, and two feet in diameter, found imbedded in sandstone at Banktop, Yorkshire.

The cicatrices of the petioles are obovate, and have a central oblong crest or ridge; the interstices form deep angular furrows.

The stems with this type of sculpturing, are supposed to belong to a group of extinct vegetables, which held an intermediate place between the Sigillariæ, previously described, and the Lepidodendra; together with the latter, and certain true Coniferæ and arborescent ferns, these trees appear to have constituted the principal forests of the Carboniferous epoch.