But, we might ask, for what eyes, for whose thoughts, for whose wants, 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 overwhelmed, 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 Equisetaceæ, of Lycopodiaceæ, and dicotyledonous Gymnosperms. The Annularia and Sigillariæ belong to families of the last-named class, which are now completely extinct. The _Annulariæ_ were small plants which floated on the surface of fresh-water lakes and ponds; their leaves were verticillate, that is, arranged in a great number of whorls, at each articulation of the stem with the branches. The _Sigillariæ_ 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, _sigillum_, gave origin to their name. Fig. 41 represents the bark of one of these Sigillariæ, which is often met with in coal-mines. The _Stigmariæ_ (Fig. 42), according to palæontologists, were roots of Sigillariæ, 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 _Sigillariæ_ in the sea-cliffs of the South Joggins in Nova Scotia, and found that from the lower extremities of the trunk they sent out _Stigmariæ_ as roots, which divided into four parts, and these again threw out eight continuations, each of which again divided into pairs. Twenty-one 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 _Sigillariæ_ as merely provisional.[43] [43] _Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc._, vol. xxii., p. 129. [Illustration: Fig. 41.--Sigillaria lævigata. One-third natural size.] [Illustration: Fig. 42.--Stigmaria. One-tenth natural size.] Two other gigantic trees grew in the forests of this period: these were _Lepidodendron carinatum_ and _Lomatophloyos crassicaule_, both belonging to the family of Lycopodiaceæ, 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.