OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE COAL-MEASURES. 
357 
Calamite is curious. Without losing a certain mural arrangement, the cells, in that 
plant, are, as pointed out in my first memoir, like bricks standing upon their ends. 
This vertical elongation of the mural cells of a medullary ray is not without its living 
representative : I find it in sections of the wood of the ebony. 
The only objects which at present remain to be described, are some remarkable 
ones from the Halifax nodules, found by Mr. Binns ; two of these are represented in 
fig. 102, imbedded in a mass of spores and other fragments of carboniferous plants. 
These objects consist of a central cell, surrounded by a ring of 8 or 9 somewhat 
obovate scales, each one of which seems to be a single cell. In two cases the central 
area is further subdivided (101, a) into a small six-sided centre, surrounded by 6 
regular subdivisions ; but whether these surfaces represent 7 distinct cells, or whether 
they are merely the superficial impressions of other cells with which they were 
formerly in close contact, I am unable to determine. I incline to the latter con- 
clusion, since they appear to me to be only impressed on one surface of the area, 
corresponding with the centre of fig. 102, b. The peripheral appendages are evidently 
thin, because their margins often overlap each other very distinctly. That these are 
free objects and not mere sections of some elongated structure is obvious from their 
number and from the frequent way in which two of them partially overlap each 
other. They may possibly be some new form of sporocarp. Until we discover further 
information respecting them it may be convenient to recognise them by the name of 
Oidosporci anomala. Their diameter is about '0023. 
I have once more to acknowledge the aid I have received from allies, old and 
new: Mr. Butterworth and Mr. Nield ; John Aitken, Esq., of Bacup ; Mr. Isaac 
Earnshaw, Messrs. Spencer and Binns, of Halifax ; Professor Young and John 
Young, Esq., of the Glasgow University; E. Wunsch, Esq., of Glasgow, and 
Professor Balfour, of Edinburgh, have all kindly given me valuable aid by supplying 
me with important specimens ; whilst I am again indebted to the Messrs. Pattison, 
of Manchester, for the use of their very effective marble-cutting machinery. 
Index to the Plates. 
PLATE 19. 
Astromyelon. 
Fig. 1. Transverse section of a stem of Astromyelon enlarged 14 diameters. 
a. Medulla, b. Vascular wedges. 
Fig. 2. Longitudinal section of a branching stem enlarged G diameters, a. Medulla. 
a, a". Medulla of Branch. 
