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Petrifactions of the Earliest European Angiosperms. 



By Marie C. Stopes, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.L.S., Fellow of University College, 

 London. 



(Communicated by D. H. Scott, F.R.S., Pres. L.S. Received February 20, — 

 Read May 2, 1912.) 



(Abstract.) 



The paper records the existence of Angiosperms in England in Aptian 

 times, i.e. at a geological period when they have been hitherto supposed not 

 to exist in Northern Europe; describes botanically the anatomy of these 

 fossils, which come under three new genera ; and notes the points of 

 structural and phylogenetic interest in them, as being the oldest Angiosperms- 

 of which the anatomy is preserved, and contemporaneous with Bennettites. 



The specimens are from the Lower Greensand ; all are in the Geological 

 Department of the British Museum. All are woody Angiosperm with 

 secondary thickening, of which the internal anatomy is preserved. In one 

 of the specimens the petrifaction of the tissues is remarkably beautiful, 

 showing the pit canals in the wood fibres, ray cells, etc. 



The three specimens differ so much that they are put into three different 

 genera to which entirely non-committal names are given, as there is n© 

 evidence that they belong to any extant family. The plants described are 

 shortly : — 



Aptiana radiata, gen. et spec, nov., a woody stem about 3"5 cm. in 

 diameter, with pith and cortex preserved. The vessels are exceedingly 

 small, comparatively evenly scattered, little disturbing the rows of fibre- 

 tracheids composing the uniform wood. The rays are numerous, uniseriate, and 

 three- to four-seriate, the latter with funnel-shaped expansions in the phloem. 



Woburnia porosa, gen. et spec, nov., part of the secondary wood, with large 

 numbers of exceedingly large vessels, and broad rays. 



Sabulia Scottii, gen. et spec, nov., decorticated woody stem with pith, in 

 which all the tissues are much thickened, and the vessels principally in pairs. 



All are undoubted Angiosperms, which cannot be referred to any living 

 form, though in individual details of structure they resemble one or other 

 of the families of modern Angiosperms. That they are contemporaneous 

 with Bennettites gives them a further point of theoretic interest. Their 

 chief importance lies in the fact that they are the first Angiosperms to be 

 described from this early horizon in Northern Europe, and that they are the 

 oldest Angiosperms of which we know any part of the anatomy. 



vol. lxxxv. — B. 



