68 BemarJcs on Mr. Carruthers' Views of PrototaxUes. 



taxites itself. Nothing can be more fallacious in fossil botany tban 

 comparisons which overlook the structures of those primitive palaeozoic 

 trees which in so many interesting ways connect our modern gym- 

 nosperms with the cryptogams. 



It is scarcely necessary to reply to such a statement as that the 

 fibres of Prototaxites have no visible terminations. They are very 

 long, no doubt, and both in this and their lax coherence they con- 

 form to the type of the yews. In Mesozoic specimens of Taxoxylon 

 which I have now before me, the fibres are nearly as loosely attached 

 and as round in cross section as in Prototaxites. In these, as in 

 Prototaxites, water-soakage has contributed to make the naturally 

 lax and tough yew-structure less compact, and to produce that ap- 

 pearance of thickness of the walls of the fibres which is so common 

 in fossil woods. 



Disks or bordered pores in Prototaxites I did not insist on, the 

 appearance being somewliat obscure; but Mr. Carruthers need not 

 taunt me with afiirming the existence of such pores in the walls of 

 cells not in contact. Pores, if not bordered pores, may exist on such 

 cells, and the wood-cells of Prototaxites are in contact in many 

 places, as may easily be seen ; and even where they appear separate, 

 this separation may be an efi'ect of partial decay of the tissues. 



Mr. Carruthers converts the spiral fibres lining the cells of Pro- 

 totaxites into tubes connecting the cells. This is a question of fact 

 and vision, and I can only say that to me they appear to be solid, 

 highly refracting fibres ; and under high powers, precisely similar to 

 those of fossil specimens of Taxoxylon from British Columbia, and 

 to those seen in charred slices of modem yews. I may further say 

 that Mr. Carruthers' figure (Plate XXXII.) is in my judgment to 

 a great extent imaginary'. 



But what of the arrangement of these fibres. It is true that, 

 as I have stated, they appear in some cases to pass from cell to cell, 

 and I hesitated to account for this appearance. Mr. C. might, how- 

 ever, have spared himself the remark that " if Dr. Dawson knew 

 anything whatever about a vegetable cell, and the formation of the 

 spiral fibre in its interior, he would not have written such nonsense " 

 — (a specimen, by the way, of the amenities of British Museum 

 Science, as represented by Mr. C). The possibilities of such an 

 appearance, as yet, perhaps, unknown in the plant-rooms of the 

 Museum, result from the following considerations: (1.) In more or 

 less crushed fossil plants, it is not unusual to see what are really 

 internal structures appearing to pass beyond the hmits of the cell- 

 wall, from the mere overlapping of cells. I have good examples in 

 the Mesozoic Taxoxylon already mentioned. (2.) In fossil woods 

 the original cell- wall is often entirely destroyed, and only the lig- 

 neous lining remains, perhaps thickened by incrustation of mineral 

 matter within. In this case the original lining of the cell may seem 



