Manchester Memoirs, Vol. I. (1906), No. 10. 17 



sporangium, in which character they agree with Botry- 

 opteris rather than Zygopteris ; the annulus appears to be 

 of but one row of cells, but from the specimen it is 

 impossible to be sure. Only the outer cells of the 

 sporangium wall are sufficiently well preserved for recog- 

 nition, though the debris on their inner sides indicates 

 the possibility that they had the soft inner lining which 

 occurs so often in fossil ferns. No spores are preserved. 

 One of the sporangia is bigger than the others and 

 somewhat crushed, this shows the annulus very well 

 (see Ft'g. 12), and may be more mature than the others. 

 In one slide (T. 15) several sporangia are lying close 

 together, but they are entirely free from one another. 

 It is unlikely that sporangia of this type formed anything 

 approaching a synangial sorus. These sporangia are 

 extremely like those of a modern leptosporangiate fern, 

 and there appears no reason to suspect them of being male 

 fructifications, or in any way different from those of a 

 typical fern. 



9. Geological Horizon and Preservation. 



The mine in which the nodule containing Tubicaulis 

 Sutclijfii was found, is one which works the lower coal 

 measure seam known variously as the " Bullion," " Upper 

 Foot," or " Halifax Hard Bed," and is identified in many 

 localities in Lancashire. The actual nodule was not one 

 of the plant nodules found in the seam of coal itself, but 

 was one of those in the " roof" which usually contain no 

 plant remains, but are packed with goniatites of all 

 sizes, many visibly sticking on the outside, and must 

 undoubtedly have been formed under marine conditions. 

 Sometimes such nodules contain plant remains, in which 

 case there is generally but one plant in the nodule 

 embedded among the goniatites and not mixed with 



