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 XXV.

PLATE XXV.

"Frondose Megaphyton."

(Megaphyton distans, of Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora of Great Britain.)

Very large stems not channelled, with regular cicatrices of great size, arranged longitudinally, occur in the sandstone and grits of the Carboniferous formation, and are supposed to belong to a tribe of extinct plants, more nearly allied to the arborescent ferns of our tropical climes, than to any other existing trees.

The specimen figured is part of a stem ten feet in length, from a quarry near Rowmarsh in Yorkshire.

This stem has a coarse fibrous surface, furrowed longitudinally; the cicatrices left by the shedding of the leaves are of a horseshoe shape with the points directed upwards.