Lign. 44. Fossil Fruits, or Seed-vessels; nat.
| Fig. | 1.— | Cardiocarpon acutum. Snibstone Coal-mine, Leicestershire. |
| 1a.— | 1a.—One of the above magnified. | |
| 2.— | 2.—Carpolithes Bucklandii. Coralline Oolite, Malton. | |
| 3.— | Trigonocarpum olivæforme. Snibstone Colliery. | |
| 4.— | Trigonocarpum Nöggerathi. |
The reader will observe that the fossil vegetables hitherto described belong, with but few exceptions, to the Carboniferous flora; and that the remains of Ferns, Calamites, Sigillariæ, and Lepidodendra, compose in a great measure those prodigious accumulations of mineral fuel, or coal, which supply the luxuries and necessities created by civilization.
Our review of fossil plants will now assume somewhat of a botanical arrangement, and we proceed to notice some of the most characteristic vegetable forms of the secondary and tertiary formations. We commence our examination with those remarkable tribes of gymnosperms, the Cycadaceæ, which comprise the Zamiæ and Cycadeæ.
Fossil Cycadaceæ.
The plants of this subdivision of the vegetable kingdom, from their singular structure and mode of growth, their simple cylindrical stems, and coronets of pinnated foliage, resembling that of certain palms, their usually gyrate vernation like that of the ferns, and their anomalous inflorescence and fructification, are objects of great interest to the scientific botanist; while the abundance of their fossil remains in the secondary formations renders them of the highest importance to the geologist.
Lign. 45.
Foliage and upper part of the Stem of Cycas revoluta 1/12 nat.
In Kew Conservatory.