Manchester Memoirs, Vol. liv. (1910), No. H. 



XVII. The Anatomy of Calanwstachys Birmeyana, 

 Schimper. 



By George Hickling, D.Sc, 



Lecture^- in Geology in the University of Manchester. 

 Read February Sth, igio. Received for publication June 14th, igio. 



Notwithstanding the care with which this cone has 

 been repeatedly investigated, by Binney, Carruthers, 

 Williamson, Hick and Williamson and Scott (see under 

 "Literature"), our knowledge of its vascular anatomy 

 still remains very imperfect. Remains of the cone are 

 abundant, and in general very well preserved, in the 

 coal-balls of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The extreme 

 delicacy of its vascular tissues is the cause of our 

 imperfect knowledge regarding them. 



It is now generally accepted that the cone was 

 characterised by a slender axis bearing, on alternate 

 nodes, whorls of 12 — 14 bracts or 6 — 8 sporangiophores ; 

 that the axis had a stele with a solid medulla, surrounded 

 by 4 or 6 endarch vascular bundles, each with a " pro- 

 toxylem-" or " carinal-" canal ; and that each bundle gave 

 off at alternate nodes traces which passed out more or 

 less horizontally to the bracts or sporangiophores respec- 

 tively. It is known that the bundles do not alternate at 

 the nodes. The peculiar masses of " nodal wood," and 

 the character of the tracheids have also been well 

 described. 



The observations on which this note is founded have 

 been especially directed to the elucidation of such features 

 of the vascular organisation of the cone as would seem to 



July 20th, igio. 



