158 TEMPSKTA. 



structures; these often appear in the specimens as oval or round 

 tubular cavities, but in some cases show a horseshoe vascular band, 

 to which I have already referred in speaking of Yelenovsky's 

 figures. Similar structures are represented in Corda's figures of 

 the petioles of Tempskya pulchra and T. microrhiza. 1 In two of 

 the Museum slides there are oblique sections of sclerenchymatous 

 tissue, in which the cavities of the fibres have been filled with 

 some opaque black substance, the fibre walls being represented by 

 clear spaces. The result is that each sclerenchymatous element 

 has the form of a tapered cast of the cavity of the fibre, and 

 radiating from this black spindle-shaped body occur tiny spoke-like 

 structures, evidently casts of the fibre pits. An identical form of 

 preservation has been described by Stenzel 2 in his paper on Rhiw- 

 dendron Oppoliense, Go'pp. 



The general conclusion of these remarks may be summed up 

 as follows : In TempsJcya Sckimperi we have masses of branched 

 diarc fern roots associated with petiole axes, which occasionally 

 afford evidence of branching ; probably some forms of Tempskya 

 and Protopteris are very closely related, if not identical plants; 

 but, so far as English specimens are concerned, there is an absence 

 of any direct proof of such organic connection between the two 

 fossils as Feistmantel and Velenovsky have previously suggested. 



V. 216. This specimen shows good examples of repeatedly 

 branched structures, possibly roots. Ecclesbourne. Rufford Coll. 



V. 1441. Two specimens with this registered number ; on one 

 piece there is a fairly thick layer of coal enveloping the semi- 

 mineralized tissues. Ecclesbourne. Rufford Coll. 



V. 2246. V. 2462. Smaller pieces. Ecclesbourne. 



Ru/ord Coll 



7345. Slightly more than 19 inches long. Tilgate Forest. 



Mantell Coll. 



7346. Eleven inches broad and 3^ inches thick. Tilgate Forest. 



Mantell Coll. 



1 Flor. Vorwelt, pi. Iviii. 



2 Jahres-Ber. Schles. Ges. Kultur, Erganzungsheft, 1886, pi. iii. figs. 27-29. 



