206 
Ruth Holden. 
Loth, which, when sectioned, proved to he admirably preserved, and 
this he kindly submitted to the writer for investigation. It is about 
12 inches long, and roughly oval in cross section, 15 inches being 
the long diameter and 6 inches the short. It is covered externally 
by a thin coating of lime, and there are calcite veins shooting in 
every direction ; it is, in fact, very similar to those specimens which 
are strewn so abundantly along the shore, six miles further north, 
at Helmsdale. 
The annual rings indicate that this stem had attained an age 
of at least 75 years, but it is quite possible that originally there 
were more layers which have now been stripped off. Although 
their contour shows that the centre is present, the tissues of that 
region have become displaced, and it is now impossible to decipher 
the structure of the pith or of the primary elements. 
The character of the secondary wood is represented by the 
photographs of Plate III. The annual rings are well marked, and 
vary in breadth from 2 to 11 mm. The spring wood grades evenly 
into that formed in summer, indicating that we are dealing with a 
stem, not a root. In longitudinal section, the wood is seen to be 
very simple, consisting only of tracheides and rays, without resin 
canals or wood parenchyma. The rays (PI. Ill, Fig. 2) vary from 
2 to 20 cells in height, averaging 8 to 12 ; in general they are 
uniseriate or partially biseriate. The pitting is seen in radial 
longitudinal section to be of the Abietineous type—cf. Gothan (5). 
The transverse walls are thick and heavily pitted, as in the living 
Abies or Picea ; the pits of the tangential walls are not so numerous 
as in those genera, but resemble more closely certain of the Cupres- 
sineae, e.g. Juniperus. Radially there are one, or less frequently 
two, half-bordered pits to each cross-field, similar to those of 
Podocarpus , or certain species of Piims. The pits of the tracheides 
are confined to the radial wall, where they are strictly uniseriate, 
and almost invariably closely compressed and flattened by mutual 
contact (Fig. 4). The pore itself was originally circular, but during 
the course of petrifaction the wall of the tracheide has usually 
become slit obliquely, along the pit, thus obscuring the true 
condition. Such an appearance may be often observed in dried 
specimens of living conifers, especially in the thick-walled summer 
tracheides. It is usually unsafe to make a definite statement 
regarding the torus of a fossil, but in this case, there can be no 
doubt of its presence. It is dark in colour, and circular in outline, 
and contained within the opening of the pit. As is well known, in 
the Abietineae the torus is considerably larger than the pore ; in the 
