596 
ME. E. W. BINNEY ON SOME LOWEE-COAL-SEAM EOSSIL PLANTS. 
inner portion of the outer cylinder, as well as the thick tubes or elongated utricles, 
arranged in radiating series, composing the outer part next the bark. Nevertheless in 
the former there is nearly always some evidence left of circular openings or eyes sur- 
rounded by coarse cellular tissue, which gradually assumes a radiating character, and 
from which the wedge-shaped bundles of tubes or elongated utricles proceed and extend 
to the outside of the stem. The character of these circular openings, and the wedge- 
shaped bundles proceeding from them, is well shown in the young specimen of Sigillaria 
vascularis , drawn in Plate XXXI II. fig. 5, and remind us much of what is seen in Cala- 
modendron, except that in the latter plant the walls of the tubes exhibit oval openings, 
sometimes approaching the form of disks, characters which have not as yet, so far as 
my knowledge extends, been observed in the outer cylinder of Sigillaria. In larger and 
older specimens, as previously stated, the walls of these tubes or elongated utricles of a 
quadrangular form have become much thicker, and cannot be distinguished from those 
of Pinites, except by the absence of disks. 
The outer cylinder, as before noticed, in large specimens always presents divisional 
lines of a rectangular form, filled by spathose matter, in shape very like those now 
seen in hard-wooded trees. These appear to me as if made by pressure, but they may 
have been formed in the process of drying, before the mineralization of the specimen, as 
previously stated ; however, it is still my opinion that these lines originate from pressure 
rather than desiccation, as there is little evidence yet published of the subaerial decay 
of the vegetable matter now forming coal, while, on the contrary, nearly every seam of 
cannel-coal affords abundance of fish remains, and no doubt seams of soft bright coal, 
if equally favourable for their preservation, would yield them. My cabinet contains 
specimens from the Oldham coal-field of soft bright coal containing undoubted scales 
of Rhizodus, given to me by Mr. Wild, of Glodwick, and doubtless many more such 
specimens will be found if carefully looked for. 
In the outer portion there is always some appearance of concentric rings, no,t unlike 
those seen in our present hard- wooded trees, and which my friend Mr. J. S. Dawes, 
F.G.S., first noticed in Calamodendron *. This observation of Mr. Dawes many spe- 
cimens in my cabinet amply confirm, although they do not bear out that author’s 
statement as to Calamodendron having had a pith composed of cellular tissue, as it 
undoubtedly possessed a central axis composed of large vessels apparently barred on 
all their sides by transverse strise, and not to be distinguished from the same part of 
S. vascularis. 
Concluding Remarks. 
In this memoir the reader will no doubt have seen that it was intended to be more 
of a descriptive character than an attempt to trace the analogy of the plants whose 
remains have formed our beds of coal with living vegetables. The subject is surrounded 
with difficulties, and although the author has been singularly fortunate in meeting with 
specimens in a good state of preservation, when compared with most hitherto described, 
* Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. vii. p. 198. 
