Fossil plants, Vol. 1 : $b [A text-book] for students of botany and geologySeward, A. C. (Albert Charles)
Science
Fossil plants, Vol. 1 : $b [A text-book] for students of botany and geology
Seward, A. C. (Albert Charles)
Paleobotany
The specimens shown in fig. 66 have been referred to another species,
_E. Yokoyamae_ Sew.[540]; they were obtained from the Wealden beds
of Sussex, but according to Mr Rufford, who discovered them, the
smaller tubers of this species are not found in association with
those of _E. Burchardti_. The stems are very narrow and the tubers
have a characteristic elliptical form; the species is of little value
botanically, but it affords another instance of the common occurrence
of these tuberous branches in the Wealden Equisetums.
Similar fossil tubers, on a much larger scale, have been found in
association with the Triassic _Equisetites arenaceus_; with _E.
Parlatori_ Heer[541], a Tertiary species from Switzerland, and with
other Mesozoic and Tertiary stems. _E. Burejensis_[542], described by
Heer from the Jurassic rocks of Siberia, bears a close resemblance to
the Wealden species.
• • • • •
The description of the above species by no means exhausts the material
which is available towards a history of fossil Equisetums. The
examples which have been selected may serve to illustrate the kind of
specimens that are usually met with, as well as some of the possible
sources of error which have to be borne in mind in the description of
species.
Such Tertiary species as have been recorded need not be considered;
they furnish us with no facts of particular interest from a
morphological point of view. The wide distribution of _Equisetites_,
especially during the Jurassic period, is one of the most interesting
lessons to be learnt from a review of the fossil forms. No doubt a
detailed comparison of the several species from different parts of the
world would lead us to reduce the number of specific names; and at the
same time it would emphasize the apparent identity of fossils which
have been described from widely separated latitudes under different
names.
Specimens of _Equisetites_ are occasionally found in plant-bearing
beds apart from the other members of a Flora; this isolated manner of
occurrence suggests that the plant grew in a different station from
that occupied by Cycads and other elements of the vegetation[543].
A selection of Triassic and Jurassic species arranged in a tabular form
demonstrates the world-wide distribution of this persistent type of
plant[544].
B. _Phyllotheca._
The generic name _Phyllotheca_ was proposed by Brongniart[545] in
1828 for some small fossil stems from the Hawkesbury river, near
Port Jackson, Australia. The stems of this genus are divided into
nodes and internodes and possess leaf-sheaths as in _Equisetum_, but
_Phyllotheca_ differs from other Equisetaceous plants in the form of
the leaves and in the character of its sporophylls. We may define the
genus as follows:—
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