123 



EOSSIL PLANTS. 



respectively figured by them. Every collector of Coal-plants is aware of the blank space so 

 generally left in the above fossil plants, as well as in the roots Stigmaride. It is qnite 

 true that a little disarrangement of the scalariforra vessels {a") in the specimen is seen;, 

 but the part which remains undisturbed shows that the whole of the central axis was 

 formerly composed of hexagonal vessels [tubes], arranged without order, having all their 

 sides marked with transverse striae, and not of cellular tissue. This view is confirmed \>j 

 another and more perfect specimen of Anahathra \I)iploxylo}i\ in my cabinet, and enables 

 me to speak with positive certainty, and to show that these three plants had a similar 

 structure in the central axes to the specimens of Sicjillaria vascularis described by me in- 

 my paper published in the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.' 



" My specimen clearly proves the existence of medullary rays or bundles traversing 

 the internal woody cylinder, which originate on the outside of the central axis ; and it 

 appears to me pretty certain that Corda's specimen of JDlploxylon cycadoideum, if 

 tangential sections had been made and carefully examined, would have done the same. 



" The exterior of the specimen is not in a complete state of preservation, but it seems 

 to have been covered by irregular ribs and furrows, with slight indications of the remains 

 of the cicatrices of leaf-scars. Its marked character, as previously alluded to, is the 

 great space occupied by the central axis. This is of much larger size than in either the 

 Sigillaria vascularis or the specimens intended to be next described. 



" The lunette-shaped ends of the wedge-like bundles of the inner woody cylinder 

 bear some resemblance to the form of the same parts of the Sigillaria elegans of 

 Brongniart ; but much more to those of Corda's JDiploxyylon cycadoideum, with which 

 it appears to be identical 



" As Brongniart has preferred Corda's name of Diploxylon to Anahathra, and as the 

 former is a more expressive generic name, in my opinion, probably it is better to adopt 

 it, and accordingly the specimen has been denominated Diploxylon cycadoideum." 



25. BiNNEY^ {Sigillaria): — "Fig. 2 shows the outside appearance of the specimen 

 marked with fine longitudinal striae, irregular ribs and furrows, and some cicatrices of 

 leaf-scars, which would induce most collectors of Coal-plants to class it with a decorti- 

 cated specimen of Sigillaria. It most resembles Sigillaria organum. The bark of a 

 portion of the specimen remains attached to it in the form of coal that is united to the 

 matrix of the seam in which the fossil was found embedded. The reverse side of the 

 specimen does not show the character so distinctly. 



" Here we have a Stiginaria-YikQ woody cylinder, with a central axis composed of 

 barred vessels arranged without order, found in the inside of a stem of Sigillaria in such 

 a position as it existed in the living plant. It is not a solitary instance, but one of more 

 than fifty specimens exhibiting similar characters which have come under my obser- 

 vation. 



" In pi. xxxii, fig. 1, is represented the light-coloured disk previously alluded to and 



1 Op. cit,, p. 586, &c., 1865. 



