A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 185 



made in 1837, which threw a wholly new light upon 

 these objects. When the late Sir John Hawkshaw 

 was constructing the railway between Manchester 

 and Bolton, the workmen cut through a small group 

 of the bases of some gigantic Sigillarian trees. Casts 

 of two of these trees are now preserved in the 

 Museum of the Owens College of Manchester, and 

 figures of them are given in Plate I. of my mono- 

 graph on the " Morphology and Histology of Stig- 

 maria ficoides," published in 1 887. Four huge primary 

 roots branched off from these trees, which were 

 soon afterwards identified by my old friends, Mr. 

 Binney and Mr. John Eddowes Bowman, as being 

 true examples of the well-known Stigmaria, and 

 which they at once pronounced to be the roots of 

 Sigillariae. Other similar specimens were discovered 

 in various parts of Lancashire, but, unfortunately, 

 none of these are capable of being preserved in a 

 museum, nor could the actual continuity of the roots 

 with the central stem be demonstrated ; hence, in 

 many quarters doubt continued to be expressed 

 respecting the accuracy of the observations of the 

 Manchester geologists. 



This was the position of the question when I 

 proposed to the Palaeontographical Society the 

 publication of my monograph on Stigmaria ficoides. 

 This offer was accepted, and in 1886 my manuscript 

 and figures were handed over to the Society. It is, 

 I believe, unquestioned that I had in my cabinet at 

 that time the finest collection in the world of micro- 



