28 



D. P. PENHALLOW ON 



upwards of fifty pounds ; and furthermore, large masses of this resin are now to be found 

 where no kauri-trees are at present growing. 



This serves to suggest that in these or similar trees we may have the source of the 

 Kootanie coals, a view which gains strength also from the sub-tropical character of the 

 vegetation which flourished in the Kootanie period. (3n the other hand, it is to be remem- 

 bered that kauri or dammar is a perfectly homogeneous mass, and, therefore, does not show 

 the peculiar rod-like structure of the coals under consideration. Furthermore, had these 

 coals originated in this way, we might reasonably expect to find homogeneous masses ; but 

 in all the specimens so far brought under examination, even the most compact forms show 

 very clearly that they are composed of similar but often strongly compressed rods. We 

 may repeat in this connection our former statement that the remains of plants associated 

 with these coals have not yet been examined. When such studies are made, it is probable 

 that much additional light may be thrown upon this question. 



A review of the results obtained from an examination of the Kootanie woods with 

 reference to the size and number of resin-passages, shows that in three cases out of the four 

 the resin-passages are uniformly less numerous — often conspicuously so — than in the same 

 species from other localities. The exception found in the case of Larix oceidentalis shows 

 the resin-passages to be about twice as numerous (seven to fifteen) in the Kootanie wood. 

 In two cases the resin-passages of the Kootanie woods are conspicuously smaller, while in 

 the other two cases (Laric oceidentalis, •098--093, and Pinas albicaulis, 0'105-0-095) they are 

 sliglitly larger. 



This, then, brings us to a comparison of dimensions between the rods of the Kootanie 

 and other coals and the resin-passages of modern conifers. We find the values exhibited in 

 the following table : 



No. I. 



From this it would appear that the resin-passages of all these specimens fall far below 

 the dimensions of even the smallest coal filaments, with one exception, and even if we con- 

 sider the nearest approach as found in the occasionally large resin-passages of Pinas ponderosa, 

 these latter are found to be only (nie-foiirth greater tliiiu the smallest coal filament, and 

 decidedly less than the average size of the smallest coal rods. Out of seventy-two species of 



