OF LOWER GREENSAND PLANTS. 



163 



layers, for it shows internal horizontal corrugations identical with 

 those supposed to be external. These internal corrugations 

 bound the large hollow space which was at one time interpreted 

 as pith, and which in my view is merely central wood which 

 decayed before petrifaction. The end-view of this specimen 

 showing the internal corrugations can be well seen in PI. XIII, 



eg. 2, 



This same specimen also settles another disputed point the 

 nature of the external papilla-like markings which lie in the 



Text-fig. 47. The wood of the " Dragon -Tree," showing the separate 

 tracheids with round bordered pits obtained in the pulverising remains 

 imperfectly embedded in the matrix. After Stopes. 



corrugations. Vertically running ends of small casts of teredo- 

 borings can be well seen in the inner part of one end of the 

 specimen, and these agree in size and appearance with a number 

 of the external papilla (PI. XIII, fig. 2, t.). In addition to 

 these large papillae there are smaller ones which may very well 

 correspond to the leaf-traces and suppressed branches which are 

 sometimes visible in decorticated woods. 



AFFINITIES. It is thus evident that the " Dragon-Tree " is 

 a decorticated and largely decayed woody trunk of a coniferous 

 tree, probably a member of the Abietinete, possibly of the 



