MR. E. W. BINNEY ON SOME LOWER-COAL-SEAM EOSSIL PLANTS. 
583 
Specimen No. 1 was originally, when first found, 6 inches in length by 7 in breadth, 
and of an oval form. Its exterior surface was not very well preserved, the outer bark 
coming off with the matrix of coal in which it was imbedded, but the inner bark 
showed an irregularly fluted surface marked with fine longitudinal striee. 
In Plate XXX. fig. 1, one half of the specimen is represented. The middle portion 
of the specimen in transverse section shows a central axis, marked a, having its inner 
portion, somewhat compressed, and composed of hexagonal-shaped vessels showing 
all their sides marked with transverse strise, arranged without order. Around this axis 
is a cylinder of hexagonal vessels, 5, arranged in radiating series of considerably less 
size than those of the central axis, but having all their sides similarly marked with 
transverse strife, and increasing in size as they extend from the centre to the circum- 
ference. On the outside of this radiating cylinder is a part of the specimen not show- 
ing much structure, but apparently having been once composed of coarse cellular tissue. 
Beyond this is another zone, for the most part now consisting of mineral matter, chiefly 
crystallized carbonate of lime, sometimes affording evidence of structure in the form of 
tubes or elongated utricles arranged in radiating series, and forming an outer cylinder 
in the plant. 
Figs. 2 & 3 show longitudinal and tangential sections of the natural size, taken from 
the lower and upper portions of fig. 1. 
Fig. 4 shows a part of the transverse section, magnified five diameters, where the com- 
mencement of the w r edge-shaped masses are seen with convex ends adjoining the central 
axis, and parted by medullary rays or bundles extending from the centre to the circum- 
ference, and probably communicating with the leaves on the outside of the plant. 
Figs. 5 & 6 show longitudinal and tangential sections of a little more than one half 
of the specimen, magnified five diameters, the latter displaying the oval-shaped bundles 
of vessels traversing the internal cylinder of the plant from the centre to the circum 
ference. 
This specimen is evidently of the same genus as that described by Witham, and 
obtained by him from Allenbank in Berwickshire, from the mountain-limestone series, 
and named Andbathra pulcherrima , although in a much more perfect state of preserva- 
tion *. My specimen, however, does not show a pith of cellular tissue, it being rather 
imperfect in that part; but it distinctly confirms Witham’s opinion as to the occur- 
rence of medullary rays or bundles dividing the woody cylinder; and it appears to be 
nearly identical in structure with Diploxylon cycadoideum of Cord a f, with which it will 
be classed. 
This specimen is not in so perfect a state of preservation as those fossil-woods intended 
to he hereinafter described in this communication, especially as regards its central and 
external parts ; but it certainly differs from them in having a larger mass of scalariform 
* On the Internal Structure of Eossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic Districts of Great 
Britain, by H. T. M. Witham, E.G.S. &c. Edinburgh, 1833. 
f Beitrage zur Flora der Vorwelt, Taf x. 
