I. On Rachiopteris cylindrica, Will. 



By Thomas Hick, B.A., B.Sc., A.L.S., 



Assistant Lecturer in Botany, Owens College, Manchester. 



Received October 6th. Read October 6th, 7896. 



In his ninth memoir " On the Organisation of the 

 Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures,"* the late Prof. 

 Williamson described a series of plant remains from the 

 Lower Coal Measures of Halifax, under the name of 

 Rachiopteris cylindrica. The genus Rachiopteris he had 

 previously adopted for the reception of a number of isolated 

 Fern petioles whose connections were unknown, and in 

 referring the specimens to it, he only did so provisionally, 

 as he was "far from certain" at the time that they were 

 "true Ferns." t As to the nature of the fragments, he 

 was undecided whether they were parts of roots or parts 

 of stems. 



The description given by Williamson in 1878 is a 

 brief one, based apparently upon a small number of 

 microscopic preparations, and, so far as I can discover, 

 no further observations have been published on the 

 subject. In the present communication I propose to 

 give a more detailed account of the plant than was 

 possible when Williamson wrote of it, and then to con- 

 sider whether or not the knowledge since acquired throws 

 any light upon its affinities. The specimens on which I 



*Phil. Trans., 1878. 

 t Loc. cit. p. 350. 



Nov. 17, 1896. 



