The pictorial sketch-book of Pennsylvania : or, its scenery, internal improvements, resources, and agriculture, popularly described . earth. The vege-tation of the coal formation, according to Dr. Lindley, consisted offerns in vast abundance ; of large coniferous trees, of species resemb-ling lycopodiacece, but of most gigantic dimensions ; of vast quantitiesof a tribe apparently arialagous to cactece or ewpTiorbiacece, but per-haps not identical with them; of palms and other monocotyledons;and, finally, of numerous plants, the exact nature of which is doubt-ful. Of the entire number of specie
The pictorial sketch-book of Pennsylvania : or, its scenery, internal improvements, resources, and agriculture, popularly described . earth. The vege-tation of the coal formation, according to Dr. Lindley, consisted offerns in vast abundance ; of large coniferous trees, of species resemb-ling lycopodiacece, but of most gigantic dimensions ; of vast quantitiesof a tribe apparently arialagous to cactece or ewpTiorbiacece, but per-haps not identical with them; of palms and other monocotyledons;and, finally, of numerous plants, the exact nature of which is doubt-ful. Of the entire number of species detected in this formation, two-thirds are ferns. The fossils are divided by Botanists into the follow-ing genera, determined by the character of their fronds; pachypteris,sphenopteris, cyclopteris, glossopteris, neuropteris, odontopteris, anom-opteris, tseaniopteris, pecopteris,louchopteris,clathropteris, schizopteris,otopteris, caulopteris and sigillaria, etc., the two latter occurring onlyas stems, and the last being considered by many as a dicotyledonousplant. Of these, figure 1 exhibits a specimen of the neuropteris, or. FIG. 1.—NEUROPTERIS. nerve fern, which are plentifully distributed in the coal. Figure 2 is aspecimen of the odontopteris, or tooth-fern, not so numerous as theformer, but still characteristic of this formation. The next, Anom-opteris, are seldom met with, but nevertheless flourished in this era. ANTHRACITE COAL FORMATION 125
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectminesandmineralresources
