Manchester Memoirs, Vol. I. (1906), No. 10. 19 



in this case preserved the phloem which is not otherwise 

 recognisable (see p. 5, Fig. 5). Many of the tracheides in 

 the best preserved portions show curious "shattering," 

 the cause of which is difficult to surmise, and which is 

 more marked in this case than in any other I have 

 observed. The tracheid walls are not crushed, but have 

 broken up into fragments as though they had been very 

 brittle. {Text-fig. 2.) 



The roof nodules, lying as they do immediately above 

 the coal, must be slightly more recent in point of actual 

 time than those bullions in the seam itself, though this 

 difference is geologically so minute as to be of no moment. 

 A more important difference than that of time seems to 

 be indicated between the plants forming the " roof " and 

 " seam " nodules, and that is the oecological conditions 

 under which they grew. There are indications that in 

 the " roof" nodules we are not dealing with a swamp 

 flora, but one which had inhabited higher ground, so that 

 it is likely that Tuhicaulis Sutcliffii grew on dry land. 



10. Affinities. 



Among fossil plants the only one which shews a close 

 likeness to this new fern is Tubicaiilis Solenites, a plant 

 which has been but once found, and that in 1815, near 

 Chemnitz. It received its present name from Cotta ('32), 

 and more recently was fully described by Stenzel ('89). 

 It is not of Coal Measure age, being attributed to the 

 " Rothliegende " (a division of the Middle Permian), but 

 the anatomical details of axis, petioles, and roots are so 

 strikingly alike in the two plants that generic identity is 

 certain. 



Owing to the kindness of the authorities of the 

 Museum flir Naturkunde, Berlin, I have been able to 

 handle parts of the original specimen of this unique plant, 



