The vegetation of the coal epoch seems to resemble most that of islands in the midst of vast oceans, and the prevalence of ferns indicates a climate similar to that of New Zealand in the present day. In speaking of the island vegetation of the coal epoch, Professor Ansted remarks (Ancient World, p. 88)—"The whole of the interior of the islands may have been clothed with thick forests, the dark verdure of which would only be interrupted by the bright green of the swamps in the hollows, or the brown tint of the ferns covering some districts near the coasts. The forests may have been formed by a mixture of several different trees. We would see then, for instance, the lofty and widely-spreading Lepidodendron, its delicate feathery fronds clothing, in rich luxuriance, branches and stems, which are built up, like the trunk of the tree-fern, by successive leafstalks that have one after another dropped away, giving by their decay additional height to the stem, which might at length be mistaken for that of a gigantic pine. There also should we find the Sigillaria, its tapering and elegant form sustained on a large and firm basis—enormous matted roots, almost as large as the trunk itself, being given off in every direction, and shooting out their fibres far into the sand and clay in search of moisture. The stem of this tree would appear like a fluted column, rising simply and gracefully without branches to a great height, and then spreading out a magnificent head of leaves like a noble palm-tree. Other trees, more or less resembling palms, and others like existing firs, also abounded, giving a richness and variety to the scene; while one gigantic species, strikingly resembling the Norfolk Island pine, might be seen towering a hundred feet or more above the rest of the forest, and exhibiting tier after tier of branches richly clothed with its peculiar pointed spear-like leaves, the branches gradually diminishing in size as they approach the apex of a lofty pyramid of vegetation. Tree-ferns also in abundance might there be recognised, occupying a prominent place in the physiognomy of vegetation, and dotted at intervals over the distant plains and valleys, the intermediate spaces being clothed with low vegetation of more humble plants of the same kind. These we may imagine exhibiting their rich crests of numerous fronds, each many feet in length, and produced in such quantity as to rival even the palm-trees in beauty. Besides all these, other lofty trees of that day, whose stems and branches are now called Calamites, existed chiefly in the midst of swamps, and bore their singular branches and leaves aloft with strange and monotonous uniformity. All these trees, and many others that might be associated with them, were, perhaps, girt round with innumerable creepers and parasitic plants, climbing to the topmost branches of the most lofty amongst them, and relieving, in some measure, the dark and gloomy character of the great masses of vegetation."
Hugh Miller remarks—"The sculpturesque character of the nobly-fluted Sigillarias was shared by not a few of its contemporaries. Ulodendrons, with their rectilinear rows of circular scars, and their stems covered with leaf-like carvings, rivalled in effect the ornately relieved torus of a Corinthian column. Favularia, Halonia, many of the Calamites, and all the Lepidodendrons, exhibited the most delicate sculpturing. In walking among the ruins of this ancient flora, the palæontologist almost feels as if he had got among the broken fragments of Italian palaces erected long years ago, when the architecture of Rome was most ornate, and every moulding was roughened with ornament; and in attempting to call up in fancy the old Carboniferous forests, he has to dwell on this peculiar feature as one of the most prominent; and to see in the multitude of trunks darkened above by clouds of foliage that rise upon him in the prospect, the slender columns of an older Alhambra, roughened with arabesque tracery and exquisite filigree work."
[Flora of the Permian Epoch.]
Fig. 55. Fig. 56.
Figs. 55 and 56. Walchia piniformis, Sternb., a common species in the Permian rocks of Europe. Fig. 55. Plant with leaves and fructification. Fig. 56. Fructification, natural size.
The nature of the vegetation during the Permian period, which is associated with the Carboniferous, under the reign of Acrogens, has been extensively illustrated by Goeppert. Brongniart has enumerated the fossils in three different localities, which he refers doubtfully to this period. 1. The flora of the bituminous slates of Thuringia, composed of Algæ, Ferns, and Coniferæ. 2. Flora of the Permian sandstones of Russia, comprehending Ferns, Equisetaceæ, Lycopodiaceæ, and Noeggerathiæ. 3. Flora of the slaty schists of Lodève, composed of Ferns, Asterophyllites, and Coniferæ. The genera of Ferns here met with are those found in the Carboniferous epoch; the Gymnosperms are chiefly species of Walchia and Noeggerathia (the latter is supposed by Schimper to be a Cycad); Lepidodendron elongatum, Calamites gigas, and Annularia floribunda, are also species of this period. Walchia is a conifer characteristic of the Permian epoch, of which there are eight species described (Figs. 55 and 56). It has a single seed to each scale of the cone, and two kinds of leaves, the one short and imbricated, the other long and spreading. Among the plants of the Permian formation Goeppert enumerates the following:[17]—Equisetites contractus, Calamites Suckowi, C. leioderma, Asterophyllites equisetiformis, A. elatior, Huttonia truncata, H. equisetiformis, many species of Psaronius, one of the filicoid plants, Hymenophyllites complanatus, Sphenopteris crassinervia, Sagenopteris tæniæfolia, Neuropteris imbricata, and many other species of these genera; several species of Odontopteris, Callipteris, Cyclopteris, Dioonopteris, Cyatheites, Alethopteris, Noeggerathia, Cordaites, Anthodiopsis, Dictyothalamus, Calamodendron, Arthropitys; besides species of Sigillaria, Stigmaria, and Lepidodendron. Various fruits are also mentioned, under the names of Rhabdocarpum, Cardiocarpum, Acanthocarpum, Trigonocarpum, and Lepidostrobus.