Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ivii. (1913), No. 18. 



XVIII. A Tylodendron-like Fossil. 

 By F. E. Weiss, D.Sc, F.L.S., 



President of the Society. 

 {Read April 22iid, igij. Received for publiiaiion Septciidcr 2gth, igi3-) 



At a meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society held on December loth, 191 2, Mr. T. A. 

 Coward exhibited a silicified specimen which appeared 

 to be a plant remain of some nature, but the origin of 

 which was somewhat doubtful. It was brought to his 

 father by a labourer, who stated that he had picked it up 

 in a brickfield in the neighbourhood of Altrincham, 

 Cheshire. It seems unlikely, however, from the nature 

 of its preservation, and also from the structure of the 

 plant remain as described below, that the locality in 

 which it was found was the place in which it occurred in 

 nature, though it is equally puzzling to know how it got 

 there. 



The specimen has now been more careful)}- studied, 

 and I can give the following account of it. 



In form it is barrel-shaped (see PL /.), but somewhat 

 elliptical in section. It measures 7 cm. in height, and at 

 its widest point it has a diameter of 6-3 cm., while it 

 tapers away at the top and bottom to 4'5 cm. 



It shows more or less clearly on the outside narrow, 

 rhomboidal markings, which are arranged in a steep spiral, 

 and each of these areolae is marked by a linear depres- 

 sion extending about one-third of the length of the 

 space. 



These markings and the general shape of the fossil 

 lead to the identification of the fossil with Tylodendron, 



Nove7nber 26th, igij. 



