THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE 



NEW SERIES. DECADE VI. VOL. I. 

 No. IX.— SEPTEMBER, 1914. 



I. — Plant Cuticles from the Coal-measukks of Eritain. 



By Lucy Wills. 



(PLATES XXX AND XXXI.) 



1 . Introduction. 



OTJR knowledge of the structure of the cuticle of Coal-measure 

 plants is very meagre in comparison with the amount of 

 information recently published as to the cuticular characters of 

 Mesozoic genera. So far as I know, no detailed descriptions liave 

 been published of the cuticles of British Palaeozoic plants. Professor 

 Zeiller^ has described a few cuticles of French Carboniferous plants, 

 and Dr. Huth^ recently gave an account of the (aiticle of Mariopteris 

 miiricata, but very little has so far been attempted in this branch of 

 research. The present preliminary account deals with material 

 obtained by Mr. L. J. Wills from the Middle Coal-measures of the 

 Denbighshii-e Coal-field near Chirk and from the Old Hill Marls 

 (Etruria Marls?) in the Upper Coal-measures of South Staffordshire. 

 The cuticles are preserved as brown films in clayey shales, approaching 

 fireclays in composition, none having yet becTi found in carbonaceous 

 or sandy shales. It is hoped that this note will incite collectors to 

 search for further specimens in this state of preservation. 



The chief interest of the discovery of actual plant cuticles is that 

 they afford a new weapon with which to attack the palajobotanical 

 problems of the Coal-measures. The fact that different parts of the 

 plant are preserved in this way may lead, on further investigation, to 

 a correlation of these parts and to the identification of detached 

 fragments. I have been unable in the time available to examine in 

 any detail the spores and seeds collected, but 1 have made preparations 

 of both macrospores and microspores from the cones of different 

 species of Lepidostrohus and of platyspermic seeds of the Cordaites 

 type and others of unknown affinity. I hope in the future to 

 investigate these more fully. 



The following account records briefly the results obtained from an 

 examination of the leaf cuticles of several different species. 



2. Method op Preparation. 

 The methods of preparation employed are those which have yielded 

 much valuable information as to the cuticular structure in many 

 Mesozoic forms. ^ The cuticles were soaked off the shale, treated with 



' E. Zeiller, Houille et Perm d'Auhm et d'Ejnnac, p. 115. 



2 W. Huth, Palccobot. Zeitsch., Bd. i, pp. 7-14, 1912. 



^ For details of this method see A. G. Nathorst, Palccobot. Zeitsch., Bd. i, 

 p. 26, 1912, and H. H. Thomas and N. Bancroft, Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. viii, 

 pt. V, p. 157. 



DECADE VI. — VOL. I. — NO. IX. 25 



