OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE COAL-MEASURES. 
99 
an auparavant par M. Renault, sans que M. Williamson eut de son cote connaissance 
do I’article des Com 2 Jtes Rendus du 30 Mai, 1870. 
“La plante fossile etudiee par M. Williamson, et nommee par ]ui Volhnannia 
Daivsoni, differe cependant sans aucun doute, an moins specifiqueinent, (Je cede 
decrite par M. Renault, par la forme du faisceau vasculaire central et par I’absence des 
zones de cellules quadrangulaires qui I’entourent dans les ochantillons de France, 
cellules qui, par suite de I’epaisseur de leurs parois, ne doivent pas se dctruire 
facilenient.” 
My plant to which M. Brongniart refers, is a strobilus, not an ordinary stern. 
Herr Cti. E. Weiss, of Berlin, believes it to belong to the genus Bowmanitcs estab¬ 
lished by the late Mr. Binney.'^' No remains of the specimens described by Mr. 
Binney appear to be now discoverable, but since the important little sketch, Plate 
12, fig. 3, of Binney’s memoir, was made by Mr. Bowman, who was an accomplished 
botanist—made too when all the fragments of the original specimen were in his own 
possession—I presume that it may be accepted as representing a true form. If so, 
it certainly approaches nearer to what we find in my plant than any other hitherto 
described. If so, however, the objects which Mr. Binney designated macrospores, 
must be regarded as sporangia, which the rows of similar interbracteal spheres in my 
Volhmannia Dawsoni certainly are. 
Notwithstanding the above facts, this subject would have been left in a very 
unsatisfactory position had not Professor Ch. E. Weiss fortunately obtained in 
Germany a specimen, which he has named Boivmanites Germanicusd These 
figures correspond so closely with those of Mr. Bowman reproduced in Mr. Binney’s 
memoir, that the genus Boivmanites can now be accepted as representing an 
extremely distinct type of Calamarian fructification. But until my memoir on 
B. Dawsoni was published, nothing was known of the internal organisation of this 
fruit and until now, nothing was known of the structure of its vegetative organs. 
But my friend, Mr. George Wild, of Bardsley, near Ashton-under-Lyne, whose 
name has so often been recorded in these Memoirs, brought me the section represented 
in Plate 15, fig. 19, and which is beyond all doubt a transverse section of a stem of 
Boivmanites Dawsoni. In its general features the structure of this section is identical 
with similar ones of my Asterophyllites, and of M. Renault’s Sphenopliyllurn 
Stephanense, which latter differs materially from the Autun Splienopliyllum 
described by the same author. All these plants agree in having a central vascular 
* “Observations on tbe Structure of Fossil Plant.s found in tbe Carboniferous Strata,” by E, W. 
Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S.—Part 2; “ Lepidostrobus and some Allied Cones.” (Pateoutographical Society, 
1870, p. 59.) 
t ‘Atlas von neunundzwanzig Licbtdrucktafeln zu der Abhandlung: Beitiage zur Fossilen-Flora, III. 
Steinkohlen-Calamarien, II.’ Ch. E. Weiss. Berlin, 1884. Tafel XXI., figs. 12, 12 A, 12 B. 
f [I have recently obtained important specimens tlirovving additional light on tbe organisation of this 
interesting fi-uit, which will be described in my next Memoir.—September 9th, 1890.] 
G 2 
