100 MR. T. HICK ON A !NEW FOSSIL PLANT 



The absence of Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons from the 

 Carboniferous Flora, as at present known, may perhaps be 

 taken as prima facie evidence that it does not belong to either of 

 these groups. The scalariform tracheae point in the same direc- 

 tion, and would seem to indicate further that it can scarcely be 

 placed among the Gymnosperms. In other words, the little evi- 

 dence there is on the subject points to the Vascular Cryptogams 



as the plants to which the specimen most nearly approaches 



The similarity of some of the emerging roots to the rootlets of 

 Stigmaria described by "Williamson may be an indication of 

 some affinity with that fossil; but in view of the uniformity 

 which usually prevails in root-structure through the whole 

 vegetable kingdom, much weight cannot be attached to this 

 feature. The character of the vascular bundle, simulating as it 

 does the appearance of a monarch vascular strand, might be also 

 held to point in the direction of the Lycopodince ; but from what 

 has been already said, the bundle is rather collateral and does 

 not originate in the same manner as those of the true monarch 

 type found in that group. Moreover, the nature and arrange- 

 ment of the vascular bundles of the stem are very different from 

 anything known to occur in the Lycopodince. 



If we turn to the Filicinece, we find in certain members some 

 approach to one or more of the peculiarities met with in our 

 fossil. In the stems of Osmunda, Botrychium, and Ophioglossum 

 the vascular bundles are collateral and are arranged in the form of 

 a ring rouud a central pith. But in Osmunda the phloem parts are 

 fused laterally into a continuous ring *, while in Botrychium a 

 similar fusion occurs both in the xylem and the phloem t. I n 

 Ophioglossum we have no fusion in either part of the bundles, 

 and hence in this respect there is some resemblance between it 

 and the fossil. Ophioglossum is further interesting from the fact 

 that a root arises normally beneath each leaf, and the leaf-trace, 

 after passing down the central cylinder, is said to bend out into 

 the root J. On the other hand, each bundle in Ophioglossum is 

 said to have its own special pericycle and endoderm §, while in 

 our plant the pericycle is common to the whole buudle-ring and 

 no endoderm has yet been made out. 



As to the presence of roots in the cortex, it has already been 



Van Tieghem, ' Traite de Botainque,' 1st ed. p. 1243. 

 t Idem, p. 1262. 



250 



1393 



