Annual Report of the Council. 123 



and even arborescent dimensions. This phenomenon of 

 secondary thickening he proved to be present in the 

 several forms of Catamites, in many Lepidodendra, in 

 Stigmaria and Sphenophyllum, in Lyginodendron and its root 

 Kaloxylon, and in Heterangium. Lastly, to Williamson's 

 researches we owe the proof that Brongniart and his 

 school were in error, not only in first assuming that 

 Vascular Cryptogams were characterised by the absence 

 of an exogenous mode of growth, but also in basing upon 

 this assumption the inference that the plants known as 

 Catamites were partly Gymnospermous and partly Crypto- 

 gamic. From the first inception of his work he opposed 

 both the assumption and the inference, and every step in 

 advance added something to the evidence in favour of his 

 own views, that the Vascular Cryptogams of the Coal 

 Measures often exhibit exogenous growth, and that all 

 forms of Catamites are essentially constructed upon one 

 and the same type. 



To what extent this incomplete and preliminary state- 

 ment of our obligations to Williamson should be enlarged, 

 may be safely left to a later generation to determine, since, 

 the prominence and recognition his writings have already 

 attained, will ensure and even necessitate their careful 

 study by all who in the future come to tread the intricate 

 paths of Coal Measure Palasobotany. T. H. 



With the story of the late Professor W. C. 

 Williamson's scientific career not all has been said 

 about him that should be said in this place. A familiar 

 and loved figure in the streets and the homes, on the 

 platforms and at the social meetings of the community 

 which he also loved, he has left behind him a very sunny 

 memory. Devoted to his science, he was also richly 

 endowed with the expansiveness of a literary and an 

 artistic temperament. The sketches which adorned the 



