654 EEPORT — 1891 



This good piece had no external sj-mmetrical markings visible to the naked 

 eye, hut there are two small depressions similar to the scar of a dicotj'ledon at 

 the articulation of a branch and slight indications of a coleorrhiza, as shown 

 in the section exhibited, and this shows the tissue departing from its normally 

 perpendicular position, and becoming more horizontal as it nears the depression, 

 and bending round and running straight towards the scar ; this would indicate 

 that a branch had died off and that the stem increased in size after the death of 

 the branch. 



One peculiar thing about the woody tubes is that they are frequently pene- 

 trated by the mj'celium of a fungoid growth, and in some cases the resting spore 

 of from twenty to thirty cells is fully formed and appears exactly like a minute 

 blackberry in the interior of the woody tubes. 



The structure of Nematophycus may be descriljed as a mass of endless tubes as 

 far as can be seen in our local specimens, and each individual tube when examined 

 with the j\ power seems to be composed of a very delicate wickerwork of inter- 

 laced fibrillse with polygonal interspaces and bearing no resemblance to the 

 structure of any coniferous wood, sections of several hundreds of which I have 

 cut and examined from the local beds, at Pwllypant, Caerphilly, &c. 



The structure of the stem of Nematojjhycus is generically, if not specifically, 

 identical with that described by Mr. Oarruthers from the Canadian Devonian 

 series as Neinatophijcus Logani, except that the main tubes are only of about half 

 the size, and the secondary series of tubes, so well seen in tlie American specimens, 

 is very much less prominent in our local specimens, and the coniferous glandular 

 markings of Dawson are seen to be the resting spores of the fungus before mentioned. 



The Nematophycus found at Rumney differs also from the Canadian specimens, 

 in that they show no trace of the concentric rings or the true or apparent 

 medullary rays referred to by Dawson. 



One curious circumstance is that both Nematdp/iycus and Pachytheca are pre- 

 served without any appearance of flattening in beds in which the pressure has 

 crushed flat and distorted greatly such firm and solid shells as Digcina ruyata, 

 Rhynchonella Strichlandi, and Conularia, which would show that if they were of 

 an algas-like nature they nuist have had a power during their life of secreting 

 mineral matter like certain algae in Devonport Harbour. 



2. Report of the Committee on the Lias of Norlhamptonshire. 

 See Reports, p. 334. 



3. The Mastodon and Mammoth in Ontario, Canada. 

 By Prof. J. HoYES Panton, M.A., F.G.S. 



The writer in this paper gives a complete description of the remains of a 

 mastodon discovered (1890) in a marl-bed near Ilighgate, in the Province of 

 Ontario, Canada, and also the remains of a mammoth found under similar conditions 

 near Shelburne in the same Province (1889). 



Both specimens were discovered by John Jelly, Esq., of Shelburne. The 

 following measurements are given for comparison : — 



' The Newburg mastodon is one of the finest ever discovered in America, The 

 bones are in a most excellent state of presen'ation, and sufficient have been obtained 

 to enable the skeleton to be set up. 



