Manchester Memoirs, Vol. I. (1906), No. 10. 13 



siderable numbers were the enormous masses of these 

 grains of fungal nature ; the tissues in which they are best 

 found are well preserved, and shew no sign of destruction 

 as might have been expected from masses of invading 

 fungi ; the grains are only present in the soft tissue, and 

 not in sclerenchyma and stele also, as one might have 

 expected had they been fungi ; their size, shape, and 

 general structure are exceedingl}' like recent storage starch 

 in ferns ; they are more numerous and conspicuous just 

 in the positions one would expect were they starch in the 

 rhizome and petioles of a recent fern, and appear in great 

 numbers toward the apical part. Further, they are too 

 deep seated to be chlorophyll grains, and also other indi- 

 cations tell us that the specimen was the underground 

 portion of the plant. Prof. Oliver has observed some- 

 what similar structures in some new sections of R. corru- 

 gata Will., which are still undescribed. Williamson ('88) 

 figured very similar bodies in the cortices of several 

 plants, but inclined to the belief that they were algae, or 

 intrusive unicellular organisms of some sort. 



Some of the few minute branches which may possibly 

 be the axes of pinnules (see p. 10) have apparently three 

 zones of tissue in the cortex. Outside the space surround- 

 ing the stele is a zone of two or three rows of slightly 

 thickened cells ; outside them some soft tissue which is 

 rather broken down, and which appears thin-walled, but 

 varies in the specimens, and may only be a slightly less 

 thickened zone continuous with the outermost zone of 

 thickened cells. 



The eptdennis is seldom well preserved, and when 

 present consists of small regular cells, in no way special. 



As in the case of the main axis there appears to be no 

 characteristic external point which might lead to the con- 

 nection of this plant with other fragments. 



