The next stage is that in which the undifferentiated bulb becomes swollen at the base and develops four primary roots (fig. 207 B, C) which grow obliquely downwards and produce numerous rootlets. Meanwhile the parent rhizome gradually decays, finally setting free the aerial stems which are now provided with spreading and forked roots (fig. 208) such as we are familiar with in English specimens as _Stigmaria ficoides_, but which in the French specimens show the features of _Stigmariopsis_. At this later stage conical outgrowths are formed from the under surface of the Stigmariopsis arranged in a more or less regular series surrounding the centre of the forked and spreading roots (fig. 209). These conical and positively geotropic organs were long ago described by Richard Brown as tap-roots. Grand’Eury’s conclusions are briefly as follows: _Sigillaria_, and we may add _Lepidodendron_, had no true roots and in this respect are comparable with _Psilotum_ (fig. 118): the organs which are described by Grand’Eury as roots are correctly so named in a physiological sense, but morphologically they do not strictly conform, either in origin or in the arrangement of their appendages, to true roots. The question as to whether they are entitled to the designation root is one which it is needless and indeed futile to discuss in detail; it would be conceding too much to a formal academic standpoint to refrain from applying to them the term root, as that best describes their share in the life of the Sigillarian stems. The horizontal Stigmarian axes are rhizomes in the ordinary sense of the term and from these were developed Sigillarian shoots, characterised in the lower portions by large parichnos strands. From the base of the young bulbous shoots roots were formed: these roots being, in the French specimens, of the _Stigmariopsis_ type. [Illustration: FIG. 209. _Stigmariopsis_ and “tap-roots.” (After Grand’Eury.)] These conclusions require some modification when applied to British representatives of the arborescent Lycopodiales. The long spreading and dichotomously branched root-like organs attached to the base of Sigillarian and Lepidodendron stems are true examples of _Stigmaria ficoides_ or other species. _Stigmariopsis_ occurs but rarely. This marked difference between French and English specimens may be explained if we adopt the opinion of Solms-Laubach, who believes that the true _Stigmaria_ represents both the parent rhizome and the later-formed roots of the Rhytidolepis Sigillarian species and of _Lepidodendron_, the _Stigmariopsis_ form having the corresponding relation to the Leiodermarian-Clathrarian species. The opinion expressed by Williamson[592] in 1892 that Grand’Eury’s hypothesis “appears to be identical with the vague and speculative guesses that were prevalent among us in the early years of the present [nineteenth] century” illustrates the strength of conviction based on English specimens as to the root-nature of _Stigmaria_.