6oo 
Browne.—Anomalous Traces in the 
such a difference as that suggested above be found to exist it might* per¬ 
haps, be brought into relation with the fact that in the cones of E. palustre 
the downward deflexion of the traces of the sporangiophores in the cortex 
is insignificant even in mature cones and at the level of the lowest whorl ; 
while in the cone of E. maximum a downward deflexion of the traces in the 
cortex is characteristic of the cone, at the level of the lowest whorl, even of 
very young specimens, and possibly exists even at the moment of bonifica¬ 
tion of the tracheides of these traces (Browne, 1915, p. 247). 
Cone B of E. maximum possessed no free traces. Some, however, of 
the traces of the lowest whorl, e.g. Nos. 5, 36, and 40 of this whorl in my 
diagrammatic reconstruction of the stele (Browne, PI. XIII, 1915), appeared, 
as they entered the axis from the sporangiophore, to be approximately 
twice as large as the average traces. These traces rapidly diminished in 
size by the dying out of numerous tracheides in the cortex, and before reach¬ 
ing the axial stele they are indistinguishable in size from the other traces. 
They might be held to show preparation within the cortex for an early 
division of the trace in the sporangiophore. Two facts, however, suggest 
that these traces show a certain tendency towards a reduction in the inner 
part of their course through the cortex, though the tendency is not strong 
enough to lead to the development of a free trace. In the first place, 
these traces do not divide unusually early within the sporangiophore; 
secondly, the elements that die out as the trace passes inwards through the 
cortex (or make their appearance as it passes outwards) are aggregated 
chiefly on one side of the strand. 
The presence of free strands and of other anomalous traces is frequently 
associated with the existence of bifascicular sporangiophores, apparently 
single in nature, and still more often with the prevalence of complexes con¬ 
sisting of two or several more or less concrescent sporangiophores. In the 
only case in which a free strand was observed in E. sylvaticum it was one of 
two strands entering the axis from a sporangiophore clearly single in nature. 
In Cone A of E. maximum four out of five free strands formed part of the 
vascular supply either of a sporangiophore single in nature but possessing 
two distinct bundles, or of a double sporangiophore, i. e. a sporangiophore 
formed by the concrescence of two sporangiophores. 1 Only the last free 
trace in the diagram on the reader’s right (cf. Browne, 1915, PI. XII) repre¬ 
sents the whole vascular supply of an ordinary monofascicular sporangio¬ 
phore. In my first note on free traces, published in 1915, three out of four 
free strands found at the level of the lowest whorl of Cone A of E. maxi¬ 
mum were regarded as belonging to sporangiophores single in nature. On 
a careful re-examination of the sporangiophores of this whorl, however, I have 
1 One of the free strands at the level of the lowest whorl is not shown in my reconstruction of the 
stele of Cone A of E. maximum (Browne, 1915, PI. II), because it died out within the sporangio¬ 
phore. This strand was situated between the fifth and sixth traces of the diagram. 
