

Aug. 31, 1871] 
NATURE 
357 

centric circles. Thirdly, on laying open the structure and ex- 
amining the cause of the greater darkness of these rings, it is 
found to be due to the greater narrowness of the vessels forming 
the wood of the stem. The dark lines at their sides are crowded 
closer together. Thus it turns out that these circles were formed 
- Just as the rings of growth are in exogenous plants of the present 
day. The external’ markings of the stem were too obscure to 
determine the germs of this plant in the Carboniferous flora. 
Along with it were found specimens of Stigmaria /icoides, 
Flabellaria,and Lepidodendron. But the most abundant organisms 
in the bed were Avorria acicularis, now recognised as the inter- 
nal cylinder of Lepidodendrons. Probably this was a similar 
structure of some other trees of the early Carboniferous period. 
Prof. W. C. Williamson read a paper Ox the Classification of 
the Vascular Cryptogamia as affected by recent Discoveries amongst 
the Fossil Plants of the Coal Measnres. After referring to the 
labours of Prof. W. King on this subject, for a knowledge of 
whose excellent paper he was indebted to Mr. Carruthers, and 
having dwelt at some length on the structure as interpreted by 
him of the stem of Lepidodendra, &c., he remarked that the 
conclusion to be drawn from the study of the structure of these 
fossil cryptogamic stems is, that so far as the structure of their 
medullary axis and ligneous zone is concerned, they are not in 
any sense acrogens but exogens ; that they have a pith, consisting, 
in the lower fossil Lepidodendra, of a mixture of cells and vessels ; 
that as we ascend to the higher forms the cells separate from the 
vessels, the former assuming a central and the latter a peripheral 
position ; that the woody zone surrounding the medullary axis 
consists of radiating lines of vessels, which increase by successive 
additions to the external surface of the zone, which vessels are 
separated by mural arrangements of cellular tissue constituting 
medullary rays. Consequently, when such a process of growth 
has gone on until the result was a tree with a stem two or three 
feet in diameter, the application of the term acrogen to such 
cases is simply absurd. Such being the case, Prof. Williamson 
proposed to separate the vascular cryptogams into two groups, the 
one comprehending Equisetacez, Lycopodiacez, and Isoetaceze, 
to be termed the Cryptogamiz Exogenz, linking the cryptogams 
with the true exogens through the cycads ; the other called the 
Cryptogamiz Endogenz, to comprehend the ferns, which will 
unite the cryptogams with the endogens through the Palmacez. 
Mr. Carruthers said :—The difficulties towards my accepting 
Prof. Williamson’s interpretation of these plants are indicated by 
the terms which Prof. Williamson uses when he speaks of a 
vascular pith, and of medullary rays containing vascular bundles. 
The plants were true cryptogams, and in their organisation 
agreed in every essential point with the stems of Lycopodiacez. 
It was consequently necessary to apply to vascular tissues which 
had the position of medulla and medullary rays such names when 
these agreed with structures in the plants so closely allied to 
tothem. The variations in recent stems of the Lycopodiacezx 
were as great as in the fossii, and in some an average amount of 
the tissues agree with and fully illustrate the stems of Lepidoden- 
dron. In regard to the application of these structures to recent 
cryptogams, it was certain that an adherence to vegetative 
organs would set aside the natural classification based on the 
reproductive organs. And, indeed, the views advocated by 
Prof. Williamson would separate plants so closely related as the 
Hymenophylleze and the Polypodize. It was important that in 
the fossil, as well as in the recent vascular cryptogams, the most 
satisfactory materials for determining their systematic position 
were obtained from their organs of reproduction. 
Dr. M‘Nab said :—I am very sorry I cannot agree with Prof. 
Williamson in his interpretation of the structure of these stems. 
Botanists are all agreed in this, that Lepidodendra and their 
allies are closely related to the lycopods. Now we know that 
the lycopods, like the ferns, have closed fibro-vascular bundles ; 
bundles which can only grow for a certain time, and then all the 
cambium being converted into permanent tissue, growth must 
cease. It seems to me that the key to these structures is to be 
met with in Lycopodium Chameecyparinus, in which we have a 
cylinder of wood-cells surrounding the central cylinder of united 
fibro-vascular bundles. This cylinder of wood-cells represents, 
and is a mere modification of the cellular tissue met with in the 
ordinary stems of lycopods. In this way it follows that the cen- 
tral portion is not a pith, but consists of the central group of 
fibro-vascular bundles. It also follows that the wood cylinder in 
these stems is not the homologue of the wood cylinder of an or- 
dinary exogen. The classification of these plants proposed by 
Prof. Williamson seems also to me to be quite untenable. 

Prof. Thiselton Dyer thought it was satisfactory that the papers 
on fossil botany were at last brought to the section where they 
could be properly discussed. It was most important not to 
separate the study of recent from that of fossil forms. If this 
had always been remembered, a great deal of wasted money and 
labour might have been saved in the publication of imperfectly 
understood material. Prof. M‘Nab’s description of the homo- 
logies of the sterms in Lycopodium and Lepidodendron was the 
one accepted by all botanists who had looked into the matter. 
Prof. Williamson’s classification was botanically untenable ; it 
traversed every canon of classification. It separated the Equise- 
taceze from the Ferns, and placed them with Lycopodiacez, with 
which they had nothing in common. The two types of stem 
which existed in the recent higher cryptogams existed equally in 
the extinct forms, 
Prof. Williamson, in reply, said he did not attack a classifica- 
tion based on the organs of fructification, but that based on 
growth, and reiterated his belief that we had here a series of 
cryptogamic plants with an exogenous growth of their stems. 
SUB-SECTION. —ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 
Professor Humphry read a paper Ox the Caudal and 
Abdominal Muscles of the Cryptobranch. He gave a general ac- 
count of these muscles, and drew the following inferences :—1. 
That the abdominal muscles are an extension and expansion of 
the caudal muscles. 2. That the several abdominal muscles are 
derived from one simple muscular sheet, which is segmented into 
planes by difference in direction of the muscular fibres at different 
depths. 3. That the fibres of the external and internal oblique 
muscles are continued into those of the rectus, a gradual altera- 
tion from an oblique to a straight direction being observed in the 
fibres as they approach the middle line, 4. That the ilium and 
the ribs are the result of ossification in the course of the inter- 
muscular septa and chiefly in those parts of their thickness which 
correspond with the plane of the internal oblique muscle. 
SUB-SECTION, —ANTHROPOLOGY 
Lieut.-Col. Forbes Leslie read a paper Ox ancient Hieroglyphic 
Sculpiures. All the hieroglyphics on Scotch rocks and mono- 
liths can be assigned to two distinct types, the earliest of which 
consisted for the most part of circular cups or cavities worked in 
the stone, and also of circles, or parts of circles, variously com- 
bined. The second type, which seems to have superseded the 
first, did not entirely reject its figures, and, from the territory in 
which it is alone found, may be termed Pictish. The earlier 
form is found widely distributed on monoliths in Scotland, while 
the later form is much more restricted. The hieroglyphs were 
symbols of religious ideas. 
In the next paper, by Dr. Conwell, Ox an Inscribed Stone at 
Newhaggard, in the County of Meath, curious hieroglyphic 
characters of an unknown age and inscrutable meaning were ex- 
hibited to the meeting. 
Dr. Beddoe then contributed a paper Ox the Inhabitants of 
the Merse. There were, he said, two well-marked types, the one 
consisting of a rather long and narrow oyal head, almost Swedish 
or Frisian in form, light eyes and hair, and a tall, long-limbed 
figure ; the other had a broader head, fuller temples, hair brown 
or light, and a robust frame. In stature and bulk the men of 
the Merse are hardly surpassed in Great Britain. Their large 
size may be inscribed to inheritance from the original Teutonic 
settlers of the district, and partly to the agency of a harsh and 
uncongenial climate, and a coarse, but plentiful diet of oatmeal, 
peasemeal, and milk. It is very probable, however, that the 
use of bread and tea instead of meal and milk, would cause a 
physical degeneration in the future. 
Then followed a paper by Mr. J. W. Jackson, Ox the Atlantean 
Race of Western Europe, and A Description of Paleolithic lm- 
plements, by Mr. J. W. Flower. And in the absence of the 
authors of some of the papers Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins gave an 
account of the origin of the domestic animals of Europe. None 
of them date so far back as the Quaternary age. The sheep, 
goat, the small short-horned ox (Bos longifrons) the domestic 
Urvus, the domestic horse, the dog, the tamed wild boar, and the 
turf-hog, to which all the European swine can be traced, appeared 
in Europe at the same time in the Neolithic age. He argued 
that they were probably derived from the East, and imported by 
a pastoral people from the central plateau of Asia. The evidence 
afforded on the point by the southern forms of vegetation found 
along with this group of animals in the Swiss lakes adds con- 
siderable weight to this view. In Britain, down to the time of 
