The Geological History of PlantsDawson, John William, Sir
Science
The Geological History of Plants
Dawson, John William, Sir
Paleobotany
The second specimen of this species represents a lower part of the stem.
It is thirteen inches long and about four inches in diameter, and is
covered with a mass of flattened aërial roots lying parallel to each
other, in the manner of the _Psaronites_ of the coal-formation and of _P.
Erianus_ of the Upper Erian or Devonian.
4. _Asteropteris noveboracensis_, gen. and sp. n.--The genus
_Asteropteris_ is established for stems of ferns having the axial portion
composed of vertical radiating plates of scalariform tissue embedded in
parenchyma, and having the outer cylinder composed of elongated cells
traversed by leaf-bundles of the type of those of _Zygopteris_.
The only species known to me is represented by a stem 2·5 centimetres in
diameter, slightly wrinkled and pitted externally, perhaps by traces of
aërial roots which have perished. The transverse section shows in the
centre four vertical plates of scalariform or imperfectly reticulated
tissue, placed at right angles to each other, and united in the middle
of the stem. At a short distance from the centre, each of these plates
divides into two or three, so as to form an axis of from ten to twelve
radiating plates, with remains of cellular tissue filling the angular
interspaces. The greatest diameter of this axis is about 1·5 centimetre.
Exterior to the axis the stem consists of elongated cells, with somewhat
thick walls, and more dense toward the circumference. The walls of
these cells present a curious reticulated appearance, apparently caused
by the cracking of the ligneous lining in consequence of contraction
in the process of carbonization. Embedded in this outer cylinder are
about twelve vascular bundles, each with a dumb-bell-shaped group of
scalariform vessels enclosed in a sheath of thick-walled fibres. Each
bundle is opposite to one of the rays of the central axis. The specimen
shows about two inches of the length of the stem, and is somewhat bent,
apparently by pressure, at one end.
This stem is evidently that of a small tree-fern of a type, so far as
known to me, not before described,[BK] and constituting a very complex
and symmetrical form of the group of Palæozoic ferns allied to the
genus _Zygopteris_ of Schimper. The central axis alone has a curious
resemblance to the peculiar stem described by Unger ("Devonian Flora
of Thuringia") under the name of _Cladoxylon mirabile_; and it is just
possible that this latter stem may be the axis of some allied plant. The
large aërial roots of some modern tree-ferns of the genus _Angiopteris_
have, however, an analogous radiating structure.
[BK] Prof. Williamson, to whom I have sent a tracing of the structure,
agrees with me that it is new.
The specimen is from the collection of Berlin H. Wright, Esq., of Penn
Yan, New York, and was found in the Portage group (Upper Erian) of Milo,
New York, where it was associated with large petioles of ferns and trunks
of _Lepidodendra_, probably _L. Chemungense_ and _L. primævum_.
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