344 PROFESSOR W. C. WILLIAMSON ON THE PLANTS 



tion of some specimens which fortunately fell into my 

 hands, enabled me to clear up many points which were 

 hitherto obscure. Fifteen years ago, a very large and fine 

 specimen of Sternbergia approximata came into the posses- 

 sion of the late Dr. Charles Phillips of Manchester, and was 

 by him presented to the museum of the Manchester Natural 

 History Society. In this specimen, the Sternbergia was 

 invested by a thick ligneous covering, as in the case ol Mr. 

 Dawson's examples from Nova Scotia ; but of what kind of 

 tissue this ligneous zone consisted I could never ascertain, 

 owing to the loss of the specimen, which, becoming decom- 

 posed, was, I understand, thrown away. After the death 

 of Dr. Phillips, his private collection of fossils passed into 

 the hands of my friend, John Bury, Esq. of Scarborough. 

 On examining the collection a few weeks ago, I found in it 

 the fine fragment which I have represented by fig. 10, and 

 for the loan of which I am indebted to Mr. Bury ; it is, 

 doubtless, a portion of the same plant as the large speci- 

 men already referred to. The minute examination of its 

 structure clearly established the coniferous character of the 

 ligneous cylinder, but it threw very little light upon the 

 real nature of the Sternbergia which it invested. 



My own collection contained a small fragment of fossil 

 wood from Coalbrookdale, enclosed in an ironstone nodule, 

 for which I was many years ago indebted to the able histo- 

 rian of that interesting field, Mr. Prestwich. On subjecting 

 this specimen to a careful examination, I found that it also 

 contained a form of Sternbergia. But what was of the 

 highest importance, it exhibited in exquisite perfection 

 all the other tissues of the plant, from the epiphloeum to the 

 medulla ; thus enabling me, not only to establish the cha- 

 racter of the plant, but also to settle the real nature of the 

 so-called Sternbergia. From the study of this latter speci- 

 men, along with many others, I have come to the conclusion, 

 that Sternbergia approximata belonged to a coniferous plant 



