1(32 DESCBIPTIVE CATALOGUE 



a mass of matrix. That the trunk was branching at this point 

 is possible ; but it appears to me that contortion of the semi- 

 decayed wood prior to petrifaction is an equally good explanation 

 of this appearance. That it has any profound significance is 

 unlikely, as will be realised when it is demonstrated that the 

 specimen is only the decayed trunk of an abietinean tree. 



All the specimens in the Museum show fragments of Tery 

 friable and semi-decayed wood, which is really largely composed 

 of tracheids, though it was taken for mineral matter by previous 

 writers. " 1 have found, however, that if one selects a portion 

 of the specimen free from matrix, the point of a sharp pen-knife 

 will free with the slightest touch some of the fibrous powder of 

 the wood. If this powder is then mounted on an ordinary 

 slide, and soaked in water for a short time under a cover-glass, 

 it will be found that it consists of short lengths of individual 

 tracheids, generally separate from each ether or lying in pairs" 

 (Stopes, 1911). These can be cleared with glycerine, acid, or 

 other clearing medium according to circumstances. In the 

 wood of the " Dragon-Tree " the tracheids thus obtained show 

 circular bordered pits lying in a single row at some distance 

 from each other (text-fig. 47). 



Such wood-elements prove the plant to have been Coniferous, 

 apparently exclude the Araucarineae or Taxacca?, and leave it 

 practically certain that the specimen represents a semi-decayed 

 trunk of one of the Abietineao or Taxodinese. 



After these observations were made, I noticed an illumi- 

 nating specimen in the Maidstone Museum, which shows 

 all the ordinary characteristic features of the " Dragon-Tree" 

 (PI. XIV, figs. 1 & 2) with, in addition, the beautifully- 

 preserved remains of a branch identical with the branch of an 

 ordinary coniferous tree. This is well seen in PI. XIV, fig. 2, 

 which shows a side-view of the flattened specimen illustrated in 

 fig. 1. The appearance of this branch affords conclusive support 

 for the view that the " Dragon-Tree " is a coniferous tree, and 

 disposes finally of the possibility of its being a Cycad or some 

 other unusual plant. 



The Maidstone specimen further demonstrates that the hori- 

 zontal ribbing of the stem, which has hitherto been taken as 

 a true character, is merely a feature of successive surfaces of 

 decorticated wood which might have peeled or rotted off in 



