70 REPORT — 1889. 



The farfclier question arises. What are the future prospects of this 

 inquiry ? 



I am still carrying on my investigations, but the cause of interruptions 

 already referred to is not yet exhausted. Still more important is the fact 

 that at ray advanced age I can scarcely expect to live to complete my 

 task. But I am taking every precaution that the work already done 

 shall not be thrown away. Specimens of every coal examined are being 

 preserved in the museum of Owens College. When the time comes that 

 I must lay down my pen and pencil, all my records of observations, 

 and of illustrative microscopic preparations made, will be found in the 

 museum of the same college. Hence it will be open to some of the 

 younger generation of histologists, who may oare to do so, to utilise 

 my materials, and to carry the work to a final issue. 



In the department of carboniferous vegetation much progress has also 

 been made. The fact that the stems of Calamites, Lepidodendra, and many 

 other cryptogamic plants grew exogenously, first announced at Edin- 

 burgh in 1871, and which was then and long afterwards rejected almost 

 universally, is now as universally accepted by geologists and botanists. 

 The only exceptional plants have until lately been the ferns. Hitherto 

 no proof has been available that their stems ever grew exogenously. I 

 am now, however, in a position to prove that the fine exogenous arborescent 

 stem to which 1 long ago gave the name of Lt/ginodendron OldJiaminm 

 is part of the same plant as the fern petioles and leaves to which I gave 

 the name of liachiopferis aspera ; so that the ferns must now be added to 

 the remarkable group of Carboniferous cryptogams of which the stems 

 and branches grow exogenously. But another botanical heresy now comes 

 to the front. In all the Carboniferous Lycopods the vascular bundle was 

 primarily solid and contained no medulla. As the twig enlarged into a 

 branch, this bundle expanded into a gradually enlarging vascular ring, 

 enclosing a medulla which enlarged pari passu with the ring. Many 

 botanists now decline to believe this. But, as in the case of the exogenous 

 theory, the fact will fight its way into acceptance, though contrary to 

 most known analogies amongst living plants. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. James W. Davis, Mr. W. 

 Cash, Dr. H. Hicks, Mr. Clement Eeid, Dr. H. Woodward, Mr. 

 T. BoYNTON, and Mr. Gr. W. Lamplugh {Secretary), appointed 

 for the purpose of investigating an Ancient Sea-beach near 

 Bridlington Quay. 



No further excavation of the buried cliff beds has been undertaken by 

 your Committee during the past year ; but further investigations, should 

 they be considered desirable, will have been greatly facilitated by the 

 removal of the talus-heaps of previous workings by the action of the sea. 



The tedious task of gelatinising and repairing the bones obtained last 

 year has been proceeded with, and a part of them are now in a condition 

 for determination. When further progress has been made, it is proposed 

 to place the whole collection in the hands of competent osteologists for 

 critical examination, the results of which we hope to embody in oar next 

 report. 



The excavated section was visited last autumn by a party which 



