On the Anatomy of Two Palaeozoic Stems from India. 
BY 
The late RUTH HOLDEN. 
With Plates XVII-XX. 
T HE Glossopteris flora characteristic of the Permo-Carboniferous of the 
Southern Hemisphere has received a considerable amount of attention 
of late years, but there are many problems connected with it which are still 
to be solved. Up to the present, the vast majority of specimens are known 
from impressions alone, in marked contrast to the contemporaneous flora of 
the north. This statement holds true especially for India, where nothing 
has been described in the way of anatomically preserved material. The 
Director of the Geological Survey, however, >has sent to Professor Seward 
two specimens which are of exceptional interest from a comparative 
standpoint. 
The first stem is from the Barakar of Deogarh ; it consists of several 
pieces, about 2 cm. in diameter, embedded in a fine-grained grey sand- 
stone. The bark has disappeared completely, and in places the structure 
of the wood has been obliterated by the vicissitudes of fossilization, but as 
a whole the state of preservation is excellent. 
Dadoxylon INDICUM, Sp. nov. 
Pith. 
As is common in Palaeozoic stems of the Cordaitean type, the pith is 
large, varying from 5 to 7 mm. in diameter (Fig. 1, PL XVII). It differs, 
however, from Cordaites itself, and the nearly related Mesoxylon , in the 
absence of transverse diaphragms, thus agreeing with the only other known 
Permo-Carboniferous stems from the Southern Hemisphere — Dadoxylon 
Pedroi from Brazil 1 and D . lafonense from the Falkland Islands. 2 The 
tissues of the pith may be differentiated into an inner and an outer portion. 
The former is composed of irregularly squarish parenchyma cells, and the 
latter of slightly thicker walled, elongated elements, which are often filled 
with a dark substance and are probably secretory in nature. These cells 
are sometimes very long (Pig. 5), but are usually broken up by transverse 
1 Zeiller (1895). 2 H alle (1912). 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXI. Nos. CXXIII and CXXIV. July and October, 1917.] 
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