58 



W. Carruthers — Notes on Fossil Plants. 



been assumed between them and Araucaria. And it has always 

 appeared to me doubtful whether the reticulated surface of the 

 wood-cells in these Craigleith fossils was not more nearly allied 

 to the spiral structure found in Taxineous wood, than to the disc- 

 bearing tissue of the Ahietinece. The distinction between the two 

 kinds of structure in the wood-cells is well shown in the accom- 

 panying woodcut, in which Pinites Wiihami, Lindl. and Hutt. 

 (Woodcut, Fig. 4), is contrasted with a true Abietineous wood from 

 the Wealden at Brook Point, Isle of Wight, (Woodcut, Fig. 6). 



Fig. 4. — Araucarioxylon [Pinites) Withami, 

 Kraus. Coal-measures, Craigleith, 

 Edinburgli. 



Fig. 5. — Pine-wood from Wealden at 

 Brook, Isle of Wight. 



No fruits have hitherto been found in the Coal-measures which 

 could be referred with certainty to fossils represented by the 

 Craigleith tree, if we except Trigonocarpon, which Dr. Hooker 

 has shown good reason for considering a Taxineous fruit. Lindley 

 and Hutton's supposed cone, to which they 

 gave the name Finns anthracina (pi. 164.), 

 is certainly a fragment of a Lepidodendroid 

 plant. It is possible that Cardiocarpon 

 may have been the fruit of the Taxineous 

 Dadoxylon, and that the large Trigonocarpon 

 may only be the seed of a large form of 

 Cardiocarpon. 

 6. Pothocites Grantoni, Paterson. 

 Poihocites Grantoni, Paterson. Woodcut, 

 Fig. 6 (Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., vol. i., p. 45, 

 pi. iii., fig. 1 — 3), is another remarkable form 

 of inflorescence from the Coal-measures, the 

 affinities of which are clearly investigated 

 by Dr. Paterson in the paper quoted. The 

 original specimen is preserved in the Museum 

 connected with Prof. Balfour's Class-room 

 at the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, where I 



Fig. &- Pothocites Grantoni, J^ g examined it. 

 Paterson. Coal-measures, -"""^ ^■°-"- 

 Granton, near Edinburgh. 



