FOSSIL WOOD FROM INTOMBI CAMP, LADYSMITH. 233 



A Note on a Fossil Wood from Intombi Camp, 

 Ladysmith. 



By 



E. A. Newell Arber, Ifl.A., FX.S., F.O.S. 



The sections of a fossil wood found at Intombi Camp, 

 Ladysmith, and forwarded to me for examination by Dr. 

 Hatch, appear to agree in general structure with the species of 

 Dadoxylon, associated with the Glossopteris Flora in many 

 regions of Gondwanaland.i The preservation is, hoAvever, 

 imperfect, and it would therefore be unwise to attempt a 

 specific determination on the present material. 



This Gymnospermous wood has the following features. 

 The xylem is alone present. It consists of centrifugally 

 developed tracheides, rather small in size and rectangular in 

 section. The annular rings of growth are Avell marked, but 

 in some cases irregular, the successive zones varying con- 

 siderably in breadth. The tracheides bear on their radial 

 walls a single series of bordered pits. Occasionally the pits 

 are biseriate. The medullary rays are numerous, often of 

 considerable height, but, as a rule, uniseriate. The ray cells 

 communicate with the tracheides by large oval, somewhat 

 oblique, simple pits. No gum-canals or resin-cells Avere 

 observed. 



This specimen differs from Dadoxylon australe Arher,^ 

 in the fact that the bordered pits are uniseriate or at the most 

 biseriate. In D. australe ArJier, the pits are usually multi- 

 seriate or croAvded, though not infrequently uni- or bi- 

 seriate. The difference is thus not important, and, pending 

 the discovery of better-preserved specimens, the Ladysmith 

 Avood may be proA'isionally termed Dadoxylon sp. 



' Ai-ber, "Monogr. Glossopteris Flora," 'Brit. Mus. Catal.,' 1905, 

 pp. 190-204. 



2 Arber, ibid., p. 191, text-figs. 40-43. 



