MORPHOLOGY OF PINITES OBLONGUS. 191 



cimen to vae, accompanied by a second half of the same 

 specimen^ for the purpose of description and publication. 



The specimen was originally obtained from the beach 

 at Sidmouth^ where it has most probably been washed out 

 of the Lower Greensand^ as was supposed to have been the 

 case with Lindley and Hutton''s specimen, found on the 

 shore near Lyme Regis ^. 



I at once saw that the sections placed in my hands 

 were identical with the Abies oblonga of Lindley and 

 Hutton ; but since they show some details of structure 

 and morphology not mentioned by the above authors, they 

 deserve an independent examination. 



Fig. I represents a vertical section through the centre 

 of Miss Flood's specimen, twice its natural size. It ex- 

 hibits a small portion of the central axis at a, the super- 

 ficial zone of which is obviously woody, being traversed 

 horizontally by numerous parallel lines, which are evi- 

 dently medullary xylem rays; its more central portion 

 consists of narrow, vertically elongated fibres, in which no 

 special structure can be discerned. From this axis nu- 

 merous lignified carpellary scales, b, c, are given ofi", as in 

 modern cones. Sections of these scales show a difference 

 between their superior and inferior component tissues. 

 The former, b' , is composed of large, thick-walled, sclerous 

 parenchyma, the cells of which are generally a little elon- 

 gated parallel to the long axis of the cone. In Lindley 

 and Hutton^s description this tissue is vaguely described 

 by the term '' corky .^^ Cork it certainly is not. The 

 inferior layer is much more dense, being composed of 

 vertically elongated and very narrow fibres. The peri- 



* Lindley and Hutton speak of this specimen as from " the Dresent shore." 

 Mr. Starkie Gardner informs me that after an exhaustive search he can find 

 no such place, and is inclined to assume that " Dresent " is a misprint for 

 some other word. 



