216 Palaeontolosie. 



)s' 



In longitudinal section the wood is seen to be very simple consisting 

 only of tracheides and rays without resin canals or wood paren- 

 chyma. The pitting of the rays is seen in radial section to be of 

 Abietineous type. The pits of the tracheides are confined to the 

 radial wall, where they are strictly uniseriate, and almost invari- 

 ably closely compressed and flattened, i. e. the pitting here is 

 Araucarian in character. A torus is present; trabeculae are also 

 represented but no bars or rims of Sanio. There is a remarkable 

 abundance of tyloses in the tracheides. The name Metacedroxylon 

 scoticiim is proposed for the specimen. It differs from M. araiicari- 

 oides (F^rotocedroxylo)i araucarioides, Gothan), from the Upper Juras- 

 sic"of Spitzbergen, only in the absence of pits on the tangential 

 Walls of the tracheides, and in the biseriate character of the rays, 

 and it confirms the conclusion of Dr. Stopes that the plants of 

 the Scottish Oolites belong to the same "life province" as that 

 which included Yorkshire — and also Spitzbergen — during 

 that period. W. B. Turrill (Kew). 



Lindsey, M., The Branchin g and branch of Bothrodendwn, 

 (Ann. Bot. XXIX. p. 223—230. April 1915.) 



Two new specimens of Bothrodendron minutifolium from the 

 Manchester Museum are described and evidence brought forward 

 in favour of the branch theory of the origin of the ulodendroid scar. 



One of the new specimens shows branching of a type hitherto 

 undescribed. It consists of the end of a main axis with opposite rows 

 of alternate Dranches with trumpet-shaped bases. The cortex of the 

 main stem is continuous with that of the branches, showing the 

 branches to be attached in quite a normal way and thus disproving: 

 the umbilical attachment theorj' of Ren i er. These branches them- 

 selves show the ordinary bushy, spreading mass of small branches 

 usual in known Bothrodendron. 



The other specimen is a similar though larger branch which 

 has fallen away, its clean-cut, trumpet-shaped ending suggesting- 

 that it has broken away along a definite abscission layer. 



Though previously described Bothrodendrons in the ulodendroid 

 condition have been attributed to B. pnnctatian, the fact that these 

 new specimens are B. minutifolium is not an insurmountable difft- 

 culty, since these two species, if not indentical are at any rate very 

 closely allied, and it is therefore quite probable that both had the 

 same method of shedding. W. B. Turrill (Kew^). 



Oliver, F. W., Foreign pollen in fossil seeds. (New Phyto- 

 logist. XIV. 6 and 7. p. 220—221. June and July 1915.) 



The author refers to Mr. Birbal Sahni's paper on the finding 

 of foreign pollen in ovules of Ginkgo and states that it is exceedingly 

 rare to find foreign pollen in the pollen-chambers of fossil seeds, 

 Indeed Stephanospermiim akanioides is the only instance in his 

 experience in which it was possible to be sure of the presence of 

 foreign pollen. 



Prof. Oliver remarks on the abundance of pollen frequently 

 found in the pollen-chambers of fossil seeds and that Physotoma 

 elegans is pre-eminent in this respect. The following possibilities as 

 to the circumstances which brought so much pure pollen into the 

 pollen-chambers are suggested: in the event of aerial transport 



