OF LOWER GREENS AND PLANTS. 235 



curved and at an angle. Badial pitting of the rays not 

 preserved. 



HORIZON. Lower Greensand. 



LOCALITY. Luccomb Chine, at the foot of the gorge. 



TYPE. Small branch, not less than 4 cm. in diameter and 

 more than 20 years old, with pith and primary wood, no. V. 2117 

 and slides V. 2117 a to h cut from it in 1912 ; British Museum 

 (Nat. Hist,). 



FINDER. Count Solms-Laubach, August 1889. 



DESCRIPTION. The type-specimen is of special interest, as it is 

 one of the pieces of wood mentioned by Count Solms-Laubach 

 (1890) as baving been found in situ by himself when he visited 

 the locality of the famous Bennettites Gibsonianus. He speaks of 

 finding sandy concretions in situ and says : " Zerschlagt man 

 dieseConcretionen, so findet man gewohnlich inmitten derselbcn 

 ein Fragment fossilen Coniferenholzes von guter Erhaltung, 

 mitunter ausserlich nur von dlinner Gesteinskruste iiberzogen." 



The particular specimen in the Museum now described is 

 4 cm. in diameter and embedded in the characteristic granular 

 matrix. Sections were cut from it in 1912, when its beautiful 

 preservation, especially of the pith and primary wood, was 

 apparent. Hound the pith and protoxylems are at least 20 

 annual rings of secondary wood, which are locally very well 

 preserved and show sharply marked seasonal growth. 



A second specimen, which appears to belong to the same 

 species, is V. 5427, though in one or two trifles it differs some- 

 what from the type. It is a rather smaller axis, 3 cm. in 

 diameter and 5 cm. long, which also retains the pith and proto- 

 xylems. Its annual rings are more feebly marked and the 

 protoxylems less definitely grouped in bundles, otherwise there 

 seems to be no recognisable difference between the two speci- 

 mens. Owing to the lack of detail in the radial walls of the 

 medullary rays, however, it is possible that it may really be a 

 different species, though it is not determinable as such. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF THE STEM. The pith is about 1 mm. in diameter, 

 circular stellate, and surrounded by about 20 principal primary 

 bundles. The pith consists of three types of cells, one of them 

 being very much thickened stone-cells (see text-fig. 67). The 

 protoxylems are extensive, but no centripetal wood appears to be 

 present. Growth -rings in the secondary wood are very clearly 



