[penHALLow] CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY PLANTS OF CANADA 38 
association of the two—the one overlying the other within a space of 
less than 1 cm. at the point of greatest separation, and at an angle 
which seemed to show that in the original matrix the two must have 
been in contact, if not actually joined — served to lend weight to the 
idea that the two fragments were in reality parts of the same plant, 
and that the stem-like body was therefore a portion of a fern stipe or 
rachis. From the very small amount of material available, transverse 
and longitudinal sections were cut, and these proved to be most 
successful in exposing the most important parts of the structure. It 
was then seen beyond all doubt, that the specimen represented the 
stipe of a fern in a most excellent state of preservation, and from it 
the following details have been obtained. 
Transverse.— (Plate VIT. fig. 1). The epidermal system has been 
completely removed. The outer cortex consists of rather small 
rounded sclerenchyma cells (Plate VIT. fig. 2), the walls of which are 
not very strongly thickened. This tissue passes ‘gradually into the 
structure of the inner cortex (Plate VIII., fig. 3) which is composed 
of rather large and thin-walled elements, among which are a number 
of much broader, prominent mucilage cells. The tissue as a whole has 
been much altered and broken by decay. The stele is of crescentic 
form (Plate VII. fig. 1,and Plate IX., fig. 5), and it is thus directly 
comparable with the corresponding structure in the Osmundaceæ 
(Plate VIIL. fig. 4), the free ends being incurved in each case. The 
endodermis shows no structural details. The vascular bundle is of 
the collateral type as in the Osmundaceæ. The phloem lies on the 
dorsal side (Plate IX., fig. 5), but the structure has been largely 
removed by decay and only that portion in immediate contact with 
the xylem —the phloem proper — (Plate IX., fig. 6) has been pre- 
served, but in such condition that the details cannot be determined. 
Within this region there are a number of rounded bodies which stand 
out from the general margins of the adjacent parts, and these repre- 
sent globules of mucilage precisely as found in any existing Osmunda, 
and as is also prominent in Todea. (Plate VIII. fig. 4,and Plate X., 
fisse TS) 
The central parenchyma on the ventral side of the stele, consists of 
small, thick-walled elements containing an abundance of protoplasmic 
material, but that portion which immediately abuts upon the protoxylem 
has been removed by decay so as to develop a structureless zone of 
considerable width. (Plate IX., fig. 6.) There is therefore evidence 
which tends to show the structure of this region to have been thin- 
walled parenchyma as in Todea (Plate X., fig. 7), and this resemblance 
is further heightened by the occurrence here of an abundance of 
mucilage globules which, in situation and number, as well as in fre- 
