| 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 |
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All Four Volumes: Scans and Webpage ©George Langford III, 2011 |
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LEPIDOPHLOIOS, St.
Lomatophloios, Corda, ex parte.
Stems arborescent, erect, with four ranked branches disposed in spiral order; leaves coriaceous, linear, long and narrow, with a thick medial nerve, bearing at base thick suberect or recurved bolsters inflated in the upper part and dotted with small vascular points. Leaf-scars transversely rhomboidal, marked horizontally by three vascular scars, minutely papillose under the cortex. The specimens of this genus obtained until now from American coal measures are rare and not well preserved, none of them with leaves. I have therefore copied the above diagnosis from Schimper, (Paleont. veget., II, p. 49) who has had for examination the splendid materials representing this genus, obtained and partly figured and described by Goldenberg, Fl. Sarraep., III, p. 25-40, Pl. XIV - XVI. From the remarkable works of this last author is derived the following elucidation: The plants of this genus differ from those of Lepidodendron by a four ranked ramification; by very thick foliaceous appendages or bolsters, open or turned backward, so that the leaf-scars appear to be placed at the lower part. These appendages, inversely imbricated, were apparently thick or succulent with a coriaceous epidermis. In most of the specimens especially in those which are flattened by compression, this epidermis is preserved in the form of transversely rhomboidal scales, irregularly cut on the borders, imbricated downward from top to base and marked in the middle by a small round or triangular scar (Atlas, Plate LXVIII, f. 2, 9a), often erased. It is on this mode of preservation that Sternberg has established his genus. Corda has seen a generic character in the persistence of the foliaceous bolsters remaining entire in one of his species and on this based his genus Lomatophloios to which the genus Pachyphlaeus, Goepp., syst., p. 433, P1. XLIII, is also referable. Corda considers the transversely ribbed cylinders described under the name of Artisia or Sternbergia as the medullar axis of Lomatophloios or stems deprived of the vascular envelope. Prof. Williamson has observed the same kind of organism in stems of Dadoxylon and Prof. Dawson in those of Devonian conifers. It will be seen, in the description of Cordaites that transversely ribbed cylinders. of the same characters also represent the central axis of these plants. I have never found any specimen of Artisia in connection with plants of other vegetable groups of the Coal measures than Cordaites and have described them with this genus, Atlas, Plate LXXIX, f. 3. Grand'Eury has also seen them and abundantly with the same plants. I have figured and described here the scars on the bark of Lepidophloios with the scales turned down or below the impression of the leaf scars as they are generally seen upon the fragmentary specimens which I have had opportunity to examine. | |
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LEPIDOPHLOIOS CRASSICAULIS, Corda.
Lomatophloios crassicaulis, Corda., Beitr., p. 18, Pl. I-V. St., Fl. d. Vorw., II, p. 206, Pl. LXVI, f. 10-14; LXVIII, f. 20. Gola., Fl. Sarraep. foss., III, p. 26, Pl. XIV, f. 7-24. Lepidophloios crassicaulis, Beer, Fl. foss. Helv., IV, p. 40, Pl. XXI, f. 2 (medullar cylindcr). Stur, Culm. fl., p. 337, Pl. XIX, f. 2 (bolsters and leaves). Schp., Paleont. veget., II, p. 50, Pl. LX, f. 13, 14. Zamites Cordai, St., 1.c., p. 196, Pl. LV. Tithimalites biformis, St., ibid, p. 205, Pl. LIII, f. 1-6 (medullar cylinder). Sternbergia approximata, Brgt., Prodr. (medullar cylinder). Bolsters of the base of leaves elongated, persistent, imbricated; leaves long, linear, acute, carinate on both sides, or, in the cross section, transversely rhomboidal or alate; scars rhomboidal, narrowed and elongated to the base. I have not seen the leaves of this species. The specimen which I describe represents the bolsters, base of the leaves and the stem. These bolsters are exactly as figured by Corda, Sternberg and Schimper, loosely imbricated, obscurely rhomboidal-oval, cut or emarginate at the top by the base of the leaf-scars. The stem is corticated, five centimeters broad ; the cortical cylinder, about one centimeter thick, covers the upper part of the specimen, while destroyed as it is on the lower part, the internal cylinder is there exposed in its whole length. The decorticated surface is marked by obscurely rhomboidal inflations, corresponding in position to that of the leaf-scars, and is irregularly wrinkled lengthwise, like the stem f. 2a in Corda, loc. cit., which however has no trace of rhomboidal leaf-scars. Now this central cylinder is flattened to one centimeter in thickness and does not show trace of any other internal subdivision or pith, the whole being compact clay-shale as composing the true medullar cylinder. Therefore if I have to rely on the characters of this specimen, the transversely ribbed cylinders referred by Corda to Lomatophloios and after him by the authors (except Sternberg), do not belong to the genus. Corda has described, Pl. V, a stem whose outside characters, leaf scars, etc., are not marked and which may represent a different kind of plant. Sternberg, l.c., describes and figures three transversely ribbed. stems as Tithimalites biformis, 1.c. Goldenberg describes and figures them from stems which he considers as those of Lepidophloios crassicaulis all of them however without the supercortical organisms, leaves or bolsters. Neither Heer, Stur, nor Grand'Eury say anything on the subject. It would indeed be remarkable if Lomatophloios which by the characters of the fructification is evidently referable to the Lycopodiaceae should have an internal structure similar or analogous to that of the Cordaites which as seen by their fructifications are evidently of a far different class of plant. Habitat—My specimen is from the roof shale of Morris, Ill., kindly presented by Mr. S. S. Strong. The internal cylinder generally referable to this species is rare in our coal measures, except at Cannelton, Pa., as pith of Cordaites. A specimen in the Museum of Comp. Anatomy of Cambridge, L. 23, is from Carbondale; another in Mr. R. D. Lacoe's cabinet is from Pittston. I have received one also from Montevallo Coal mines, Ala. (subcarboniferous) by Mr. T. H. Aldrich, and seen one in the collection of Mr. Gurley of Danville, Inda., locality not indicated. No remains of Artisia have been found at Morris or Mazon Creek, where specimens with bark and leaf-scars of Lepidophloios have been found, and no fragment of bark of species of this genus has been obtained from Cannelton where Artisia specimens abound. | |
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LEPIDOPHLOIOS AURICULATUS, Lesqx. , Plate LXVIII, Fig. 3.
Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 439, Pl. XXX, f. 1. Schp., Paleont. veget., III, p. 587. Scales large, thick, broadly rhomboidal in outline, rounded in both the upper and lower part, imbricating on the borders, very smooth; leaf-scars transversely narrowly rhomboidal and acuminate on the sides, obtuse at the top, angular at the base. The bolsters (taken altogether) measure three centimeters laterally and two and a half from the base. The leaf-scars are comparatively narrow, one centimeter wide laterally and only three to four millimeters in vertical direction, with the vascular point mostly indistinct. These large bolsters are often found separate, always preserving with the leaf-scars their forms and relative position. It is therefore difficult to understand them as composed of an impression of the base of leaves represented by the top leaf-scar, with overturned scales which, as seen in the splendid figure of Goldenberg, originally attached as horizontal to the scars, have been turned back and compressed. This however has nothing to do with the characters described. This species is much like the large scars of Lepidodendron laricinus, St., in Gold., l.c., Pl. XVI, f. 1, from a specimen which this author considers as derived from the base of a large trunk. The scales of the American species are broader, shorter, more obtuse at the base. The name of Lepidophloios auriculatus was given to this species on account of a Lepidophyllum (blade and sporange), which I considered referable to the same plant, as it was found associated with the large scales, as seen Geol. Rept. of Ill., Pl. XXIV, f. 1, which represents fragments of Lepidodendron Tijoui, one separate bolster of this Lepidophloios, and a Lepidophyllum auriculatum. I remarked in the first description, l.c., that this might be a fragment of a large cone. Habitat—Shale of the coal of St. John, Ill. | |
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LEPIDOPHLOIOS LARICINUS, St.
Gold., Flor. Sarraep. foss., 3, p. 30, Pl. III, f. 14; XV, f. 11-13; XVI, f. 1-8. Schp., Paleont. Veget., II, p. 51, Pl. LIX, f. 4; LX, f. 11. Lepidodendron laricinum, St., Fl. d. Vorw., 1, p. 23, Pl. XI, f. 2, 3, 4. Halonia punctata (Ll. & Hutt.), Gein., Verst., p. 38, Pl. III, f. 16. (fide Schp.) Lepidophyllum majus, Brgt., Prodr. (fid? Gold.) Scales compressed; bolsters transversely oval (including the leaf-scars), narrowed and acute at the sides; leaf-scars small, of the same form, marked with three distinct vascular points. The characters of this species are so very diversified, according to the parts of the stem represented by the specimens, either as corticated or subcorticated, or according to the more or less complete compression of the scales and their more or less integrate preservation, that it is very difficult to give a clear definition of it. The American specimens referred to it are mere fragments, and so deficient that I cannot positively say if any of them truly represent the species. These fragments have the bolsters (scales and leaf-scars) smaller than those of Atlas, Plate LXVIII, f. 2; the scales distinctly carinate in the middle; the leaf-scars more definitely rhomboidal, measuring vertically three to five millimeters, and laterally five to seven. The four angles are distinct, not rounded, the lateral ones more acute or acuminate. The leaf-scar is marked by three vascular points in horizontal line, and the scales elongated and acute at the lower end. Habitat—Shale of the Morris coal, not rare, (bark and bolsters); over Jackson's shaft coal, Ohio, Prof. E. B. Andrews. Pittston, Pa., Mr. James. An obscure specimen from the subconglomerate coal of Alabama, is referable to this species, or to Lepidophloios macrolepidotus. This form is represented in the State Cabinet of Ill. by specimens from Mercer county, also subconglomerate. | |
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LEPIDOPHLOIOS OBCORDATUS, Lesqx.
Geol. Rept. of Ill., II, p. 457, Pl. XLI, f. 1, 2. Schp., Paleont. Veget., II, p. 52. Bolsters (base of leaves) linear, slightly enlarged to the broadly rhomboidal point of attachment, carinate in the middle; decorticated scars subcordiform in their natural overturned state, rounded on the sides and base, overtopped by a button-like small mamilla corresponding to the leaf-scars, distant. The scales are seven millimeters broad at the lower part, where they become narrower in rounding to the point of attachment five millimeters, where they are broken, twelve millimeters from the base, distinctly carinate, punctulate on the surface. The decorticated scars are only five millimeters in vertical direction, including the top mamilla, and seven millimeters wide horizontally. I referred with doubt to the same species a corticated fragment, f. 2, which bears large rhomboidal impressions twelve millimeters broad, seven millimeters vertically, with a small mamilla at the upper angle; the sides are acute, the lower border obtuse or half round. The reference is uncertain, as the specimen seems to represent a corticated fragment of the former species, much like the one in Schp., Paleont. Veget., Pl. LIX, f. 4. Habitat— Duquoin coal, Ill.; same horizon as the St. John's coal. | |
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LEPIDOPHLOIOS MACROLEPIDOTUS, Gold.—Plate LXVIII, Fig. 2.
Gold., Flor. Sarraep., III, p. 37, Pl. XIV, f. 25. Schp., Paleont. Veget., II, p. 52. Bolsters imbricating at the base, a little tumescent, obtusely curved on the sides; leaf-scars transversely rhomboidal; vascular scars three, the middle one somewhat lower; scales marked in the middle by a small round mamilla. The bolsters are one and a half centimeters, from side to side, and a little more than one centimeter vertically including the leaf-scar, rounded in the upper part, elongated and acuminate to the base. The leaf-scars are narrow, four millimeters vertically, eight to nine millimeters transversely, rather oval, narrowed and acuminate at the sides. There is scarcely any difference between the characters indicated by our figure and those in Goldenberg's. The bolsters are slightly smaller and less inflated in the American specimen. Habitat—It is represented by a fragment, No. 117, in Mr. Gurley's collection. Grape Creek, Ill. | |
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Scars distant, rhomboidal, acute at the top and the sides, the base rounded; vascular points simple, conical, marked in the middle of the lower border of the leaf-scars. This may represent merely the leaf-scars of a decorticated specimen. The surface of the fragment is smooth, the scars or bolsters distant, one centimeter broad, six millimeters vertically. The bolsters are divided into two parts by a deep curved line, parallel to the lower border, which forms a small leaf ? scar, two millimeters high, five broad, with a single conical vascular scar placed in the middle of the line. If this small rhomboidal top scar represent that of a leaf, the lower part would be the scale, and of course the figure like the others of this species, should be seen overturned. No species of this genus is represented with bolsters as distant. Except this, the characters refer the fragment to a Lepidophloios. Habitat — Clinton, Mo. Communicated by Mr. I. H. Britts. | |
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LEPIDOPHLOIOS PROTUBERANS, Lesqx., Plate LXVIII, Figs. 9, 9a.
Geol. Rept. of Ill., IV, p. 440, Pl. XXVI, f. 1 and 2. Schp., Paleont. veget., III, p. 537. Cortex thick, striate lengthwise; scars marked upon it by a thick protuberance of coal like a proboscis; bolsters (decorticated) ovate, enlarged below the middle, narrowed downwards to a truncate acumen; leaf-scars rhomboidal, rounded at the base, mamillate.under it, acute at the sides, more prolonged and acuminate to the top; vascular scars three; the middle one a little higher, with a small triangular scar above it. Since the first description, l.c., I have had opportunity to see other specimens of the same species. Except that sometimes the cortex is deprived of the button-like protuberances, from which the species was named, the essential characters are marked upon all. The bolsters are rarely seen in their integrity, being often half imbedded into the stone, and the upper part covered by coal or other inorganic matter. Atlas, f. 9a represents them in a good state of preservation. The scales measure, in the more enlarged part below the middle, one and a half centimeters and are hence rapidly contracted downward into a short truncate cauda. From its extremity to the round base of the leaf-scar, they are one and a half centimeters in vertical line, and the scars half a centimeter in the same direction. The mark above the three vascular points is a triangular impression, rarely distinct. From the mamilla under the leaf-scars there is a smooth circular expansion from which diverge narrow wrinkles flabellate to the borders. These also are rarely distinguishable. Habitat—Shale of the coal at Morris, Mr. S. S. Strong; not rare there, but not found elsewhere. | |
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Tubercles distant, umbonate, broadly transversely oval, marked with a small rhomboidal top or central scar, surrounded at the base and on the sides by linear truncate deciduous scales. The relation of this fragment is very uncertain. It should perhaps have been described with Halonia, as by its broad oval scar it has some likeness to Halonia secreta. I was at first disposed to omit its description, supposing that it might represent the scaly skin of some fish. But the regular spiral order of the convex tubercles is against this supposition. The oval tubercles, two centimeters in diameter on one side and one and a half on the other, are somewhat distant, half a centimeter in the direction of the spiral, slightly convex, mammillate in the center, covered on the sides with linear truncate scales, two to three millimeters broad, half a centimeter long, which, either glued on the borders or free, appear to become separated from the disks and reflexed backwards, leaving their scars upon the disks and covering the intervals. The characters, as seen upon the specimen which is very distinct, are exactly represented in the figure. This might be perhaps the corticated state of a species of Ancistrophyllum, Goepp. ? Sturr, in Culm Flora, Pl. XXIII, f. 5, has figured a fragment which seems to belong to the same kind of vegetable organism. It bears upraised mamillae much smaller than those of our specimen, but the difference is, as in all the species of Lepidodendron, merely of age. The small bolsters, five to six millimeters in diameter, exactly circular, appear covered on the sides by linear scales or their impressions. They are mostly and irregularly truncate at the top, some of them bearing three vascular scars in irregular position. On his specimen, which Dr. Sturr places with Lepidodendron Volkmannianum, he remarks, l.c., p. 291:
The peculiar character of the elevated mamilla is not remarked upon. I believe that in comparing both the figure of the Atlas and that of Dr. Sturr, l.c., the analogy even identity of characters will be fully recognized. My specimen is a fragment of bark of an old stem. The top of the bolsters represent leaf-scars, the vascular impressions have been totally erased or covered up by the compression of the borders. Habitat—Roof shale of Morris coal; communicated by Mr. S. S. Strong. | |
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Agglomerations of spores at the base of imbricating large blades, attached to broadly rhomboidal upraised tumescent scars; spores covered either by the base of the, blades, but more probably by a kind of indusium glued to their under side; blades or bracts oblong, narrowed at the point of attachment, apparently long, lanceolate, with a broad medial nerve; spores large, one millimeter in diameter, agglomerated together without apparent order of disposition, easily detached in groups, circular, with an inflated border when compressed, or generally globular on one side, triangular on the other, the lines of the angles being distinct though somewhat effaced by compression. The specimen shows only what is represented, Atlas f. 6. Atlas, f. 7 is from another specimen without blades, but exposing the imbricate position of the agglomerations of seeds more distinctly than in f. 6. There is a great deal of uncertainty in regard to the fructifications of Lepidophloios. In Fl. Sarraep., 1, p. 21, Pl. III, f. 13, 13a, 13b, Goldenberg describes Lepidophloios lepidophyllifolius, with imbricate large leaves, which he considers as stem leaves, remarking that they are the same as those formerly known under the name of Lepidophyllum majus, Brgt. In III, Pl. XV, f. 5, the same author considers these organs as sporanges and blades of cones of Lepidophloios laricinus. They are of the same type as those of our Plate LXIX, f. 34 and 37. F. 13a of Goldenberg, quoted above as representing leaves of Lepidophloios lepidophyllifolius, is scarcely different from that of Roehl, foss. fl., Pl. XIII, f. la and lb, described as fruits or strobiles of Lepidophloios laricinus. A part of it is copied Atlas, Plate LXVIII, f. 1. By comparing it with. f. 6 of the same plate, it will be seen that the blades have the same character; but those of Atlas f. 6 cover agglomerations of macrospores imbricated under the base of the leaves. From this it seems that the sporanges with large blades in Gold., l.c., Pl. XV, f. 5, which the author considers as identical with Lepidophyllum majus of Brgt., and at the same time as fructifications of Lepidophloios laricinus, are not truly referable to Lepidophloios, or that at least this reference is uncertain. The same may be said perhaps of the fragment, Atlas Plate LXVIII, f. 6. But I do not see to what other genus of the Lycopodiaceae it could be referred, and for this reason I describe it as fruit of Lepidophloios, apparently identical with f. 1, of the same plate, but not with Goldenberg's figure of Lepidophloios laricinus. Sporanges joined to their blades, found disconnected from the cones, and without evident relation to strobiles, are described as Lepidophyllum. Habitat—Cannelton coal. Mr. I. F. Mansfield. | |
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Stems arborescent; surface tuberculate, rugose lengthwise; tubercles in regular spiral order, small, subglobose, more generally conical acute, topped with a vascular terminal and prominent point, or more rarely flattened at the top into small round areoles with the vascular point in the middle; decorticated surface smooth or obscurely striate lengthwise by the series of tubercles which are oval, elevated or prominent and gradually effaced downward or decurring, preserving the impressions of the central vascular scars. | |
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CYCLOSTIGMA KILTORKENSE, Haught.
Annal and Magaz. of Natur. Hist., 3rd series, v. V, p. 444. Heer, foss. fl. d. Baren Isl., p. 43, Pl. XI. The specific characters are the same as for the Genus. The characters of the tubercles of the corticated surface, recognized upon American specimens, are in concordance with those indicated by the description and fine figure of this species in Heer, l.c., the tubercles being perhaps slightly larger, four millimeters in diameter, and more generally conical than areolate at the top. The difference is of no moment, for the acute top of the tubercles is formed of a coaly layer, apparently fragment of the base of the leaves remaining attached to the tubercles, which are also of various size in the different specimens figured by Heer, all referred to the same species. The under or decorticated surface has the tubercles tumescent or elevated above the surface, oval, one millimeter broad, three millimeters long, prolonged and effaced downward. Prof. Heer remarks that the elongated tubercles of Knorria are not seen under the bark of this genus. Indeed the oval scars are not those of a Knorria, though by the prolonged tumescenses in effacing downward they have somewhat the appearance of obscure forms of this genus. The difference is however easily remarked, as the more gradual prolongation of the scars traces upon the surface narrow ridges like obscure striae. Moreover, these scars always bear a distinct central vascular point. The two specimens examined, parts of a flattened stem, sixteen centimeters in diameter, do not bear any remains of leaves or of peculiar organs referable to Lycopodiaceae, like the leaves figured by Heer as probably pertaining to this species. The cortex is covered by a prodigious quantity of shells of Spirorbis carbonarius, Daws., larger than I have seen them elsewhere. Habitat—Near the base of the middle Carboniferous measures, in a kind of hard calcareous clay (bastard limestone), with a profusion of pinnae of Neuropteris rarinerervis, leaves of Cordaites and stems of Calamites ramosus. The plant is therefore, in America, a Carboniferous species. It has been found in England in the old red sandstone, Catskill group. Habitat—Near Alta, Peoria co., Ill., communicated by Mr. Wm. Gifford. | |
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Stems arborescent; leaf-scars in continuous spiral lines; bolsters oblong, rounded, marked by obscure concentrical striae on the middle of which were attached leaves probably cylindrical. This description is translated from Goeppert, Gatt., II, III, p. 43, and I must say, comparing it with the figures for the description of which it is made, that it does not give a satisfactory account of the characters of the fragments which they represent. Dechnia Euphorbioides, Goepp., l.c., Pl. III, f. 1, represents a piece of bark covered with very irregular bolsters, not merely of various size, but oval or round or elongated, turned in various ways, even crosswise and without any trace of a central scar. Only some of them have on their back an excrescence rarely concentrical. The other figures 2 and 3 of the same plate, show an agglomeration of round or oval inflated bladder-like tubercles, whose relative disposition is as variable as their shape. The bolsters of the specimen represented Atlas, Plate LXVII, f. 3, which I have named Dechenia striata, are larger, quite as irregular in relative position and size than those of Goeppert, f. 1; the shape is about the same. Rounded and inflated in the lower part, irregularly superposed or imbricate, regularly striate lengthwise, they are without any trace of leaf-scars or points of attachment of leaves. This fragment is quite as incomprehensible in its relation and as remarkable as that described above as Lepidophloios ichthyoderma. Schimper considers the Dechenia, species of Goeppert, as referable to Ancistrophyllum, another genus of a very uncertain character. Possibly the remains, described under this generic name are mere ferruginous concretions. Habitat—Black band iron ore, near Alta, Peoria co., Ill., Mr. Wm. Gifford. | |
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