February i6, [899] 



NA TURE 



381 



as the result of the crystallisation of igneous magmas of 

 exceptional composition. In many cases, if not in all, the 

 presence of these minerals in igneous rocks is the result of the 

 solution of argillaceous material. It seems fair to conclude, 

 from their general absence from masses of granite and other 

 igneous rocks, that the absorption of argillaceous sediments has 

 not taken place on any large scale. But in drawing this in- 

 ference caution is necessary because, under plutonic conditions, 

 the presence of water may lead to the formation of micas instead 

 of them. Fused biotite gives rise to spinelle, and fused 

 muscovite to sillimanite and corundum. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Dr. G. Sims Woodhead has been appointed 

 professor of pathology in succession to the late Prof. Kanthack. 



The Balfour studentship, of the annual value of 200/., for 

 original research in biology, especially animal morphology, has 

 been awarded to Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, Fellow of Gonville 

 and Caius College, for three years from March 25, 1899. 

 Grants from the Balfour fund of 50/. each have been made to 

 Mr. J. S. Budgett, of Trinity College, in aid of his researches on 

 the development of polypterus, and to Mr. L. A. Borradaile, of 

 Selwyn Hostel, in aid of the expenses of his proposed journey in 

 company with Mr. Gardiner, the Balfour student. 



Dr. H. E. Annett has been appointed demonstrator of 

 tropical pathology in the newly-founded school of tropical 

 diseases in Liverpool. 



We are asked to state that the offices of the National Asso- 

 ciation for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education 

 have been removed from 14 Dean's Yard to 10 (^ueen Anne's 

 Gate, Westminster, S.W. 



At the annual meeting of the shareholders of the Patent Nut 

 and Bolt Company (Limited), held on Monday at Birmingham, 

 it was resolved that the company should contribute 5000/. to the 

 fund which is being raised for the establishment of a University 

 in Birmingham. 



The London School Board have strongly protested against 

 the application of the London County Council to the Science and 

 Art Department to be recognised as the organisation responsible 

 for science and art instruction in the County of London. A 

 memorial has been drawn up and presented to the Lord President 

 of the Council, asking him not to assent to the application of the 

 County Council, and giving reasons why the Board should 

 be largely represented upon whatever authority was given control 

 over science and art instruction in London. 



A COPY of the address delivered at the recent annual meeting 

 of the Association of Technical Institutions, by Earl Spencer, 

 has been received. In the address, the importance attached to 

 a thorough system of technical instruction in America and 

 Germany is pointed out, and the intimate and necessary relations 

 which exist between technical and secondary education are men- 

 tioned. Just as it is difficult to give technical instruction without 

 a foundation of good secondary education, so secondary educa- 

 tion is retarded and often completely stopped by the poor educa- 

 tion of pupils who come from the primary schools to seek it. 

 Earl Spencer made special reference to this lack of system in 

 educational efforts, and remarked that in order to secure sound 

 and good technical education for the population as a whole, many 

 defects of primary education will need to be remedied. 



The Calendar of the Department of Science and Art has 

 been issued. As in former years, the volume contains a history 

 and general description of the Department, with a summary of 

 the rules, and a list of the .science and art schools and classes. 

 The total number of individual students who presented them- 

 selves for examination in science subjects of the Department in 

 1898 was 157,306. The six subjects in which the most students 

 were examined are — mathematics (stages I, 2, 3), 35,945 ; 

 physiography, 24,877 ; inorganic chemistry, 23,966 ; practical 

 plane and solid geometry, 20,238; machine construction and 

 drawing, 18,073 i building construction, 13,653. Of the sub- 

 jects in which practical examinations were held, the first four 

 are — inorganic chemistry, 15,012; magnetism and electricity. 

 2550 ; organic chemistry, 1195 ; sound, light and heat, 1 141. 



NO. I 529, VOL. 59] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London. 

 Royal Society, January 26. — "On the Structure and 

 Affinities of Fossil Plants from the Palaiozoic Rocks. III. On 

 Mediillosa anglica, a new Representative of the Cycadofilices." 

 ByD. H. Scott, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Hon. Keeper of the 

 Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Gardens, Kew. 



The existence of a group of fossil plants, combining in their 

 organisation certain characters of the Ferns and the Cycads, has 

 been recognised, of late years, by several pal^eobotanists. The 

 convenient name, Cycadofilices, has recently been proposed to 

 designate the group in question, which now includes several, 

 somewhat heterogeneous, genera, among which Lygiiwdendron, 

 Heteranoiuin, and Medullosa may be mentioned. 



No stem of a Medullosa has hitherto been recorded from this 

 country, though specimens of Myeloxyloii , now known to have 

 been the petioles of Medullosa, are frequent in the calcareous 

 nodules of the Lower Coal-measures. 



The author has recently had the opportunity of investigating 

 several excellent specimens of a new species of Medullosa from 

 the Canister Beds of Lancashire. These fossils are of special 

 interest on several grounds ; they are considerably more ancient 

 than any members of the genus previously described, they are 

 the first English specimens recorded, they are preserved in a 

 more complete and perfect form than any others at present 

 known, and lastly, the greater simplicity of their structure 

 causes the essential characters of the genus to stand out with 

 greater clearness than in the more complex species. The 

 specimens were discovered by Mr. G. Wild and Mr. J. Lomax, 

 in material from the Hough Hill Colliery, Stalybridge. 



The species, which is very distinct from any form previously 

 described, will be known as Medullosa auglica. 



The most complete specimen of the stem has a mean diameter 

 of rather more than 7 cm., including the adherent leaf-bases, 

 which, to judge from the most perfect specimens, almost com- 

 pletely clothed the surface of the stem. 'The arrangement of the 

 leaves was a spiral one, and in the only case where the phyllo- 

 taxis could be determined, the divergence proved to be 2/5. 



In two of the specimens the external characters of the fossil 

 are well shown. The habit of the stem, clothed with the long, 

 almost vertical, overlapping leaf-bases, may have been not un- 

 like that of some of the tree-ferns, such as Alsophila procera. 



The vascular system of the stem consists of three (or locally 

 four) steles, anastomosing and dividing at long intervals. 



Each stele of Medullosa anglica is surrounded by a zone of 

 secondary wood and bast, and shows the closest agreement in 

 structure with the single stele of a Heterangluiii, so that the stem 

 of this Medullosa might well be concisely described as a poly- 

 stelic Heterangium. 



The course of the leaf-trace bundles was followed very com- 

 pletely in consecutive series of transverse, and in longitudinal, 

 sections. On becoming free the trace is a large concentric 

 bundle ; as it passes obliquely upwards through the cortex, the 

 trace loses its secondary tissues, and undergoes repeated 

 division into a number of smaller bundles, each of which has 

 collateral structure. These collateral strands have in all 

 respects the same arrangement of their elements as the well- 

 known bundles of Myeloxylon. 



The base of the leaf received a large number of bundles, con- 

 sisting of the ultimate branches derived from the subdivision of 

 several of the original leaf-traces. This distribution of the 

 bundles is peculiar and unlike that in any known plants of 

 Cycadean affinities. 



The petioles branched repeatedly, the finest ramifications of 

 the rachis having a diameter of about I mm. only, but retaining 

 in essentials the " Myeloxylon " structure. The leaf was thus a 

 highly compound one ; the structure of the leaflets associated 

 with the rachis, agrees well with that of the Alethofteris leaflets, 

 figured by M. Renault. 



The roots, never previously observed in any species of 

 Medullosa, were of triarch structure, with abundant formation 

 of secondary wood, bast, and periderm. The author is indebted 

 to Mr. J. Butterworth and Mr. G. Wild, for specimens which 

 have thrown important light on the connection between root 

 and stem. 



While Medullosa combines, in a striking manner, the 

 characters of Ferns and Cycads, the author is not disposed 

 to regard it as having lain very near the direct line of descent 

 of the latter group. It is more probable, as Count Solms- 



