Mr Arber, Notes on the Binney Collection , etc. 
281 
Notes on the Binney Collection of Coal- Measure Plants. Part in. 
The Type-Specimens of Lyginodendron Oldhamium (Binney). By 
E. A. Newell Arber. B.A., Trinity College, University Demon- 
strator in Palgeobotany. 
\fieceived 25 November 1901.] 
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the Manchester 
Literary and Philosophical Society for 1866, the late E. W. 
Binney gave a brief account of the structure of a new fossil-plant, 
which he named Dadoxylon Oldhamium. Binney’s description 
will be found quoted at some length by Williamson 1 , in his fourth 
memoir on fossil plants. In the same memoir, Williamson gives 
reasons for transferring Binney’s plant to the genus Lyginodendron. 
The structure of this plant has been worked out in great detail by 
Williamson 2 , and also by Williamson and Scott 3 ; and to these 
authors we are indebted for a singularly complete knowledge 
of one of the most important among Palseobotanical types. 
Binney did not figure any of his sections of this plant. His col- 
lection was presented to the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge, in 
1892. Unfortunately very few of the sections have any record as to 
their nature, or origin, and the often difficult task of identifying t} 7 pe, 
and figured specimens, has gone on ever since. The collection 
contains four sections, two transverse and two longitudinal, which 
are undoubtedly those named by Binney Dadoxylon Oldhamium ; 
they are in fact sections of the type specimen (apparently not now 
in the collection) of the plant generally known as Lyginodendron 
Oldhamium (Binney ), or by some authors as Lyginopteris Oldhamia. 
The two transverse sections 4 , cut from the same specimen at different 
heights, agree exactly with Binney’s description. They are, as he 
states, \ inch in diameter, and show an apparent line of separation 
between the medullary region and the wood. There are only 
three other transverse sections in the collection, of which one does 
I not show all the tissues described by Binney, and the other two are 
I much larger (1 inch or more in diameter), and do not show “the 
I intervening spaces vertically” between the medulla and the wood. 
These three specimens were probably acquired later than the type, 
for Binney says that, at that time, he had only one specimen of 
1 Williamson, Phil. Trans, p. 377, 1873. 
2 Williamson, ibid, and Part xvii. p. 89, 1890. 
3 Williamson and Scott, Part in. Phil. Trans, p. 703, 1896. 
4 These were recently thinned, and covered, by Mr Lomax. 
VOL. XI. PT. IV. 
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