The World Before the Deluge

'been preserved to us: they bear the name of Calaviites. The engraving (Fig. 38) represents one of these gigantic mare's-tails, or Calamites, of the Coal-period, restored under the directions of M. Eugene Deslongchamps. It is represented with its fronds of leaves, and its organs of fructification. They seem to have grown by means of an underground stem, while new jjuds issued from the ground at intervals, as represented in the engraving.

The Lycopods of our age are humble plants, scarcely a yard in height, and most commonly creepers; but the Lycopodiaceae of the ancient world were trees of eighty or ninety feet in height. It was the LepidodaidroJis which filled the forests. Their leaves were sometimes twenty inches long, and their trunks a yard in diameter. Such are the dimensions of some specimens oiLepidodcndron carinatHm\s\^\ have been found. Another Lycopod of this period, the Lomatophloyos crassicanle, attained dimensions still more colossal. The Sigillarias sometimes exceeded 100 feet in height. Herbaceous Ferns were

CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD.

also exceedingly abundant, and grew beneath the shade of these gigantic trees. It was the combination of these lofty trees^vith such shrubs (if we may so call them), which formed the forests of the Carboniferous period. Thetnmksoftwoof the gigantic trees, which flourished in the forests of the Carboniferous period, are represented in Figs. 39 and 40, reduced respectively to one -fifth and one-tenth the natural size. AVhat could be m,ore surprising than the aspect of this exuberant vegetation—! these immense Sigillarias, which reigned over the forest! these Lepidodendrons, with flexible and slender stems! these Lomatophloyos, which present themselves as herbaceous trees of gigantic height, furnished with verdant leaflets! these Calamites, forty feet high! Fig. 38.— Calamite restored. Thirty to forty feet ftiffh.

these elegant arborescent Ferns, with airy foliage, as finely cut as the most delicate lace! Nothing at the present day can convey to us an idea of the prodigious and immense extent of never-changing verdure which clothed the earth, from pole to pole, under the high temperature which everywhere prevailed over the whole terrestrial globe. In the depths of these inextricable forests parasitic plants were

Fig 39. — Trunknaturalof Calamites.size. One-fifth Fig. 40. — Trunknaturalof Sigillaria.size. One-tenth

suspended from the trunks of the great trees, in tufts or garlands, like the wild vines of our tropical forests. They were nearly all pretty, fern-like plants — Sphcnoptcris^ Hymenophyllites, &c.; they attached themselves to the stems of the great trees, like the orchids and Brot7ieliacece of our times.

The margin of the waters would also be covered with various plants with light and whorled leaves, belonging, perhaps, to the Dicotyledons; Annularia fertilis^ Sphenophyllites^ and Asterophyllites.

How this vegetation, so imposing, both on account of the dimensions of the individual trees and the immense space which they occu-

CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. l^-j

pied, so splendid in its aspect, and yet so simple in its organisation, must have differed from that which now embellishes the earth and channs our eyes! It certainly possessed the advantage of size and rapid growth; but how poor it was in species — how uniform in appearance! No flowers yet adorned the foliage or varied the tints of the forests. Eternal verdure clothed the branches of the Ferns, the Lycopods, and Equiseta, which composed to a great extent the vegetation of the age. The forests presented an innumerable collection of individuals, but very few species, and all belonging to the lower types of vegetation. No fruit appeared fit for nourishment; none would seem to have been on the branches. Suffice it to say that few terrestrial animals seem to have existed yet; animal life was apparently almost wholly confined to the sea, while the vegetable kingdom occupied the land, which at a later period was more thickly inhabited by air-breathing animals. Probably a few winged insects (some coleoptera, orthoptera, and neuroptera) gave animation to the air while exhibiting their variegated colours; and it was not impossible but that many pulmoniferous moUusca (such as land-snails) lived at the same time.

But, we might ask, for what eyes, for whose thoughts, for whose w^ants, did the solitary forests grow? For whom these majestic and extensive shades? For whom these sublime sights? What mysterious beings contemplated these marvels? A question which cannot be solved, and one before which we are ovenvhelmed, and our powerless reason is silent; its solution rests with Him who said, " Before the world was, I am!" The vegetation which covered the numerous islands of the Carboniferous sea consisted, then, of Ferns, of Equisetaceae, of Lycopodiaceae, and dicotyledonous Gymnosperms. The Annularia and Sigillariae belong to families of the last-named class, which are now completely extinct. The Ammlarice were small plants which floated on the surface of fresh-water lakes and ponds; their leaves were verticillate, that is, aiTanged in a great number of whorls, at each articulation of the stem with the branches. The Sigillariie were, on the contrary, great trees, consisting of a simple trunk, surmounted with a bunch or panicle of slender drooping leaves, with the bark often channelled, and displaying impressions or scars of the old leaves, which, from their resemblance to a seal, sigillwn, gave origin to their name. Fig. 41 represents the bark of one of these Sigillariae, which is often met with in coal-mines. The StigfJiaricB (Fig. 42), according to palaeontologists, were roots of Sigillariae, with a subterranean fructification; all that is known of

them is the long roots which carry the reproductive organs, and in some cases are as much as sixteen feet long. These were suspected by Brongniart, on botanical grounds, to be the roots of Sigillaria, and recent discoveries have confirmed this impression. Sir Charles Lyell, in company with Dr. Dawson, examined several erect Sigillaric^ in the sea-cliffs of the South Joggins in Nova Scotia, and found that from the lower extremities of the trunk they sent out Stigi?iarice as roots, which divided into four parts, and these again threw out eight continuations, each of which again divided into pairs. Twenty-one

Fig. 41.— Sigillaria laevigata. One-third natural size. Fig. 42.— Stigmaria. One-tenth natural size.

specimens of Sigillaria have been described by Dr. Dawson from the Coal-measures of Nova Scotia; but the differences in the markings in different parts of the same tree are so great, that Dr. Dawson regards the greater part of the recognised species of Sigiliarm as merely provisional.^ Two other gigantic trees grew in the forests of this period: these were Lepidodendron carmatum and Lomatophloyos crassicaiile, both belonging to the family of Lycopodiaceae, which now includes only very small species. The trunk of the Lomatophloyos threw out numerous branches, which terminated in thick tufts of linear and fleshy leaves. The Lepidodcndrons, of which there are about forty known species, have cylindrical bifurcated branches; that is, the branches

• Quart. Jour. Ceol. Soc.f vol. xxii., p. 129.

139

CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD,

were evolved in pairs, or were dichotomous to the top. The extremities of the branches were terminated by a fructification in the form of a cone, formed of linear scales, to which the name of Lepidostrobus (Fig. 45) has been given. Nevertheless, many of these branches were sterile, and terminated simply in fronds (elongated leaves). In many of the coal-fields fossil cones have been found, to which this name has been given by earlier palaeontologists. They sometimes form the nucleus of nodular, concretionary balls ot clay-ironstone, and are well preserved, having a conical axis, surrounded by scales compactly imbricated. The opinion ot Brongniart is now generally adopted, that they are the fruit of the Lepidodendron. At Coal-brookdale, and elsewhere, these have been found as tenninal tips of a branch of a well-characterised Lepidodendron. Both Hooker and Brongniart place them with the Lycopods, having cones with similar spores and sporangia, like that* family. Most of them were large trees. One tree of Z. Sternbergii, nearly fifty feet long, was found in the Jarrow Colliery, near Newcastle, lying in the shale parallel to the plane of stratification. Fragments of others found in the same shale indicated, by the size of the rhomboidal scars Fig. 43.— Lepidodendron Sternbergii. which covered them, a still greater size. Lepidodendron Sternbergii (Fig. 43) is represented as it is found beneath the shales in the collieries of Swina, in Bohemia.

Fig. 46 represents a portion of a branch of L. elegans furnished with leaves. M. Eugene Deslongchamps has dra^vn the restoration of the Lepidodendron Sternbergii, represented in Fig. 47, which is sho^^^l entire in Fig. 44, with its stem, its branches, fronds, and organs of fructification. The Ferns composed a great part of the vegetation of the Coal-measure period.

Fig. 44.— Lepldodendron Stcrnbcrgii restored. Forty feet high.

The Ferns differ chiefly in some of the details of the leaf. Pecopteris, for instance (Fig. 48), have the leaves once, twice, or thrice pinnatifid with the leaflets adhering either by their whole base or by the centre only; the midrib running through to the point, Neuropteris (Fig. 49) has leaves divided like Pecopteris, but the midrib does not reach the apex of the leaflets, but divides right and left into veins. Odon/opteris (Fig. 51) has pinnatifid leaves, like the last, but its leaflets adhere by their whole base to the stalk. Lo?i-chopteris (Fig. 50) has the leaves several times pinnatifid, the leaflets.

Fig. 45. — Lepidostrobus variabilis. Fig. 46.— Lepidodendron elegans.

more or less united to one another, and the veins reticulated. Among the most numerous species of forms of the Coal-measure period was Sphenopteris artemisicEfolia (Fig. 52), of which a magnified leaf is represented. Sphenopteris has twice or thrice pinnatifid leaves, the leaflets narrow at the base, and the veins generally arranged as if they radiated from the base; the leaflets arc frequently wedge-shaped.

Carboniferous Limestone. (Sub-period.)

The seas of this epoch included an immense number of

Zoophytes, nearly 400 species of Mollusca, and a few Crustaceans and Fishes. Among the Fishes, Psammodiis and CoccosteuSy whose massive teeth inserted in the palate were suitable for grinding; and the Holoptychiits and Megalichtkys, are the most important. The Mollusca are chiefly Brachiopods of great size. The Pro-ductae attained here exceptional development, Produtca Martini (Fig. 53), P. semi-reticidata and P. gigantea, being the most remarkable. Spirifers, also, were equally abundant, as Spirifera trigonalis and S. glabra. In Terebrafida hastata the coloured bands, which adorned the shell of the living animal, have been preserved to us. The Bellerophon, whose convoluted shell in some respects resembles the Nautilus of our present seas, but without its chambered shell, were then represented by many species, among others by Bellerophon costatus (Fig. 54), and B. hiidciis (Fig. 56). Again, among the Cephalopods, we find the Orthoceras (Fig. 57), which resembled a straight Nautilus; and Goniatites (Goni-atifes evolutus, Fig. 55), a chambered shell allied to the Ammonite, which appeared in great numbers during the Secondary