RESEARCHES ON THE CARBONIFEROUS FLORA. 255 



of such specimens from British sources that Williamson 

 rendered his great services to Fossil Botany. 



It is of interest to learn how these investigations began, 

 and fortunately we are able to explain this in William- 

 son's own words from autobiographical notes which he 

 left :— 



" Earlv in the fifties when I was commencing in an un- 

 systematic way to grind down fragments of various objects 

 for microscopic investigation, I found in a drawer of my 

 cabinet a portion of a Calamite that had been extracted from 

 one of the ironstone nodules of the Coal-Measures. I was 

 not at that time provided with a lathe or any other form of 

 cutting or grinding machinery for preparing microscopic 

 sections, yet the Calamite presented indications that some 

 structure might be found in it. Chipping off with hammer 

 and chisel such fragments as appeared suitable, I ground 

 them down on a flagstone, and thus succeeded in obtaining 

 nine curious sections showing the structure of a woody zone 

 where it was in immediate contact with the medulla. Having 

 then no intention of making any special use of these pre- 

 parations, they were put away in a drawer of the cabinet 

 and almost forgotten." 



Our author then goes on to tell how he soon provided 

 himself with some simple machinery for section-cutting, and 

 narrates the lucky chance by which he became possessed of 

 a wonderful cast of the interior of a Calamitean stem, which, 

 in conjunction with the specimens showing structure, did 

 much to elucidate the anatomy (see Williamson, 9, pi. 21, 

 fig. 31 ; and 22). The publication of a figure of this cast 

 in Lyell's Manual of Geology, 1 S 5 5 , led to a correspond- 

 ence with the French palaeontologist, Grand 'Eury. This 

 again called Williamson's attention to his old Calamitean 

 slides, which ultimately formed the basis of his paper of 1869, 

 "Un the W'oody Zone of an Undescribed Form of Calamite" 

 (22). This paper marks the beginning of his more mature 

 work, and is in itself of great interest, for the form de- 

 scribed is that remarkable one which he named Calamopitys, 

 the nearest approach to a true Calamodendron which has 

 been derived from the English Coal-Measures. All other 



