| SECOND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF PENNSYLVANIA - REPORT OF PROGRESS P. DESCRIPTION OF THE COAL FLORA OF PENNSYLVANIA AND OF THE CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES BY LEO LESQUEREUX; ©1879 |
Tables of Contents:
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All Four Volumes: Scans and Webpage ©George Langford III, 2011 |
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CARPOLITHES, St.
Seeds of uncertain relation not referable by their characters to any of the former divisions.The attribution of these fruits is still more indefinite and varied than it is for those referred to the former groups. Some of them may represent merely the nucleus of species already described from the characters of their testa. |
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CARPOLITHES BIFIDUS ? Lesqx., Plate LXXXV, Fig. 16.
Fruit large, ovate in outline,
surrounded by a thick double or triple testa, broadly pedicellate;
nucleus oblong, obtuse at base, acute at the summit.Geol. of Penn'a, 1858, p. 877, Plate XVII, f. 10. Schp., Paleont. Veget., II, p. 226. This species is uncertain. I have attributed to it divers forms which are probably referable to different species. As seen by the figure in Atl., the fruit is composed of a broad thick epicarp, seven millimeters or more, surrounding a nucleus three centimeters long, one centimeter in diameter, without any pedicel, while in Penn'a Geol., l.c., the fruit is a broadly pedicellate nucleus ? inclined on one side. A large specimen, whose upper part is broken, preserved in the collection of Lafayette College, Easton, Penn'a, is five and a half centimeters broad, with double or triple testa nearly one centimeter thick; the nucleus is oblong, cnrved, prolonged downward into a pedicel partly covered by the testa. Another is much smaller, but has the same characters as the former, and the nucleus is also prolonged downward into a short pedicel partly covered by the outer testa. Perhaps all these fruits may be referable to Trigonocarpus Noeggerathi, as figured by Ll. & Hutt., II, Pl. CXLII, C, whose nucleus is pedicellate, sometimes at least, and surrounded by a very thick double testa. Habitat—The specimens in the collection of Lafayette College, one of which is figured in Atl., are all from Hazleton. The one described in Geol. of Penn'a is from the coal of New Philadelphia, Penn'a, an upper bed. |
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CARPOLITHES FASCICULATUS, Lesqx.
Nuts of medium size, smooth, ovate, prolonged at the top into a curved pedicel.Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p, 461, Pl. XL VI, f. 7. Trigonocarpus rostellatus, Lesqx., ibid., p. 460, Pl. XLVI, f. 6. These fruits, nearly two centimeters long, half as broad in the middle, oval, rounded at base, smooth, with a thin coriaceous or shelly testa, were found all at the same locality, many together,. distributed as if they had been in connection with a raceme. Most of them are constricted toward the apex as to a pedicel of which I have seen only fragments, none of them attached to the seeds. Fig. 6, l.c., only, has its apex formed of a hooked ridge prolonged downward to near the middle, like a costa. But if these fruits were fasciculate or in racemes, this inflation should represent merely a fold of the testa caused by compression. The two other fruits, though marked in the middle by a narrow linear short furrow, cannot be referable to Trigonocarpus. The nuts are generally three, four or more together in close proximity. I have not been able to find any in more evident connection than those of the specimen copied f. 7, l.c. Habitat—Abounds at Graysville, White Co., Ill., Upper Coal Measures. |
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Fruit small, oblong, truncate
at both ends, bordered by a double elevated testa; nucleus convex in
the middle, obscurely costate lengthwise. The fruit, as exposed upon the shale, is oblong, truncate at both ends, parallel sided, twenty-three millimeters long, half as broad, composed of a double pericarp, the outer half a millimeter thick, the inner narrower, apparently hard, represented by a coating of coaly matter. The nucleus is elliptical, with rounded corners and both sub-truncate ends slightly convex and indistinctly marked in the middle by a logitudinal costa. The fruit looks like a small opened box. Habitat—Shale above Murphysborough coal. |
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Nutlet small, flattened,
mammillate at one end, covered with a thin yellowish membranaceous
pellicle; nucleus oval, surrounded by a thick pericarp transformed into
crystallized iron. The whole fruit is one centimeter long, six millimeters broad; the testa two and a half millimeters thick. But for the difference in the texture and the small mamilla, attached a little outside of the base, this fruit would be referable to the following species. Habitat—Mazon Creek in concretions. |
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Seed small, in the form of a
narrow lozenge, marginate at one end, acute at the other; nucleus
distinct, of the same form, bordered by a comparatively broad, thick
testa. The whole fruit is one and a half centimeters long, half as broad in the middle. The compact testa or margin, one to two millimeters broad, is enlarged on the sides of the nucleus which is apparently, of a softer texture, being partly destroyed. Habitat—Shale of the coal of Murphysborough, Ill. |
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Seed small, narrowed up from a rounded base to a sharply acuminate apex; surface smooth or shining, hard. The seeds referred to this species are five millimeters long, three millimeters broad toward the inflated round base, often smaller, preserved imbedded into the shale in their original state of turgescence, never flattened. They are generally largest near the base, gradually narrowed to a sharp acumen, sometimes oval-oblong, acuminate at one end, obtuse at the other. Habitat—I have seen them at divers localities, but especially upon shale of the lower coal of Trevorton, Penn'a. |
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Cardiocarpus retusus, Newby., Geol. Rept. of Ohio, Paleont., p. 374, Pl. XLIII, f. 6.
Nucleus oval, strongly rugose, emarginate at the apex, with a small cicatrice at the base.Prof. Newberry remarks that Sternberg's figure is more rounded at the apex than in his specimen and destitute of the striate border. This and the two former species may be referred to Rhabdocarpus. Habitat—Shale over coal N. 1, Talmadge, Ohio. |
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Nucleus spherical in outline;
surface marked with a kind of net work of smooth bands with areoles
which form a double spiral; outer testa apparently drupaceous with
coriaceous rind. The nucleus is one and a half centimeters broad in the middle, a little less in a vertical direction. It seems to bear at its base a short pedicel. According to the author, the figure of the nucleus gives a very imperfect idea of the marking of the surface. The shelly envelope f. 2 is separated from the nucleus, but both are so associated in one locality as to render it almost certain that they belong together. Habitat—Shale over coal No. 1, Mill creek near Youngstown, Ohio, Dr. Newberry. |
| Species of uncertain attribution. |
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Nuts flattened, broadly
obovate, sub-emarginate at the base, acute or acuminate to the apex,
marked in the middle by a sharp elevated line, very smooth. Habitat—Trevorton, Penn'a. |
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Differs from the former by its undulate plaited convex surface, without
medial line, probably a variety of the former species. These fruits one
and a half centimeters broad in the middle and as long, are not rare at
Trevorton and variously shaped according to the degree and bearing of
compression in the shale. They should be described as Carpolithes. Some of them are like the nucleus of Trigonocarpus olivaeformis, Ll. & Hutt., when crushed; or may be referable to Carpolithes sulcatas
of the same author as figured III, Pl. CCXX, f. 1-6. But they are never
costate, while f. 1 of Ll. & Hutt., is tricostate or a Trigonocarpus. Habitat—Shale of the lower coal at Trevorton, Penn'a. |
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CARDIOCARPUS PUNCTATUS ? Goepp. & Berg.
Fruit flattened, round, marginate or reniform; surface marked by elevated points regularly placed in quincunxial order.De Fruct., p. 24, Pl. II, f. 26. Lesqx., Geol. of Penn'a, 1858, p. 876. Merely differs from the figure of the author by the regular disposition of the dots. I have seen only the specimen described, and Goeppert's species is also from a single specimen. It is uncertain. Habitat—Shale of the coal of Muddy Creek, Penn'a. |
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CARPOLITHES SPICATUS, Daws.
Carpels or spore-cases oval,
about three millimeters in, length apparently with a thick outer coat,
densely placed on a thick rachis.Dev. Pl. of Maine, Quat. Journ., Geol. Soc., 1863, p. 461, Pl. XVII, f. 15. The author further says: "That this is evidently a spike of fructification, and may be allied to his Trigonocarpus racemosus, and that it more resembles the fructification of Annularia or Sphenophyllum than any fossil fruits known to him. He further remarks that its parts are too indistinct to admit of minute description, and that the two ranked appearance of the seed is probably deceptive." I have specimens, which I consider as identical with this species, from the Vergent or Chemung red shale near Shamokin, Penn'a. Habitat—Perry, Maine, Devonian. |
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Base rounded regularly; apex broadly truncate and mucronate; nucleus surrounded by a narrow margin. The seed, seen from the figure, is quite flattened, seven millimeters in diameter at its truncate apex, vertically four millimeters. It has a semi-lunar shape, is apiculate at the base, and in the middle of the transverse line or diameter. Habitat—Same as the former. |
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Elongate, smooth, flattened; sides slightly sinuate, three to four millimeters in length, five millimeters in breadth. The author adds that these objects are too thick and carbonaceous to have been fronds or leaves and too regular in form to be fragments of stems, and that they may have been small extremities of roots. The figure is much like that of Lepidocystis fraxiniformis, Lesqx., Atlas, Plate LXIX, f. 21. The body is somewhat narrower and the sides more undulate. This species is extremely abundant in the Pocono below Pottsville, Penn'a, and is most variable in size and shape. Some of these specimens have the same form and size as the figure given by the author. Habitat—Same as the former. These three species are too insufficiently represented. Prof. Dawson published them in order to help the geological determination of the strata where they were collected. Besides the fruits described above, I have seen in different collections, and also have in my possession a large number of specimens of seeds whose descriptions are omitted here, either from their imperfect state of preservation or from the difficulty of clearly defining their characters without an elucidation by figures. Among them there is especially a fruit which appears to represent the Genus Codonospermum, Brgt., An. d. Sci., l.c., p. 24, at least by its likeness to the beautiful figure given of a seed of this kind by Grand'Eury, Fl. Carb., Pl. XV, f. 5. The fruit, six to eight costate, is bottle shaped, abruptly contracted above the middle to a truncate or nearly flat top, more inflated and rounded at the base; the costa, distinct but narrow, are converging to the top and to the base. The seed is a little larger than represented by Grand'Eury, three and a half centimeters long, two centimeters broad below the middle, contracted to one and a half above it, the costa being five millimeters distant in the middle of the fruit, and the space between them smooth even polished. It seems that it was enveloped into a fleshy sarcocarp, as flakes of a thin membranaceous like substance are irregularly spread along the borders, especially toward the upper part of the seeds, seemingly remains of a compressed partly dissolved vascular tissue. These specimens are on a piece of shale from Cannelton, communicated by Mr. I. F. Mansfield. |
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