822 MR ROBERT KIDSTON ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF 



Remarks. — It has been believed that the museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical 

 Society, York, possessed the original specimen from which the sections had been 

 prepared that are described and figured by Lindley and Hutton in their Fossil Flora.* 



Through the kindness of the Curator, Mr H. M. Platnauer, I had an opportunity of 

 examining the reputed types of Lindley and Hutton's descriptions and figures in the 

 York museum. The material consists of part of a stem showing structure and a 

 microscopical section. On comparing the stem with the section, it was evident, owing 

 to the larger size of the latter and its different character of preservation, that it had 

 not formed part of the supposed Lindley and Hutton stem. On this being pointed out, 

 with the object of arriving at a definite conclusion as to the stem being Lindley and 

 Hutton's type, Mr Platnauer obtained permission from the Council of the museum 

 for having the stem sliced. This has been done, and it now transpires that the stem is 

 the original block from which Brongniart's transverse section, was derived. Apparently 

 Brongniart possessed little more than a transverse section, as most of the longitudinal 

 sections he publishes are copies of Witham's and Lindley and Hutton's figures. 



The transverse section to which I have already referred, and on the glass of which 

 is written with a diamond " Northumberland Limestone, Vernon," is the transverse 

 section figured by Witham in the Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. of Northumberland, Durham, 

 and Newcastle-on-Tyne, plate ii. fig. 1, and in his Fossil Vegetables, pi. xiii. fig. 1. 

 With these conclusions in regard to the identifications of these two specimens, Dr 

 D. H. Scott, to whom I showed the specimen and sections, fully agrees. 



On the other hand, I cannot identify either of these with the figures of Lepidodencb-on 

 Harcourtii given by Lindley and Hutton. The specimen from which their sections 

 came may have been all cut up at the time ; but if not, it seems to be lost or buried 

 in some collection, where it is unrecognised as Lindley and Hutton's type. Several 

 examples, however, seem to have been found, for Lindley and Hutton say, "the fossils- 

 are found partly in the coal and partly in the roof, which in some cases consists of a 

 mass of encrinal remains and shells, such as Productse, Melanise, etc."+ 



The type specimens of Lepidodendron Harcourtii came from Hesley Heath, near 

 Rothbury, Northumberland, from rocks belonging to the Scremerston group of the 

 Calciferous Sandstone series, but the late Prof. Williamson, in part xix. of his 

 Memoirs " On the organisation of the Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures," J describes a 

 Lepidodendron from the Lower Coal Measures which he identifies as Lepidodendron 

 Harcourtii of Witham. It is, however, a well ascertained fact that not a single species 

 of Lepidodendron which occurs in the Lower Carboniferous has ever been known to pass 

 into the Upper Carboniferous ; it is therefore most improbable that the plant identified 

 by Williamson as Witham's species can really be that plant, notwithstanding the 

 great similarity of stem structure. It is perhaps to be expected that plants so closely 

 related, though undoubtedly specifically distinct, as the Upper and Lower Carboniferous 



* Williamson, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, vol. xlii. p. 6. t Lindley and Hutton, I.e., vol ii. p. 45. 



X Phil. Trans., 1893, b, p. 1. See also Proc. Roy. Soc. London, vol. xlii p. 6, 1886. 



