Page:Miscellaneousbot02brow.djvu/737

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BOTANICAL AND GEOLOGICAL. 721

to Coniferse." Geol. Trans., 2nd series, vol. iv, p. 222 (1836).

" A point which Mr. Brown considers as well deserving of remark is, that the only remains of vegetables hitherto found in these strata, under the circumstances above de- scribed, belong to two nearly related families, Coniferse and Cycadese, which have lately been regarded as forming a distinct class, characterised not only by greater simplicity of the parts of fructification, but also by some peculiarities of the internal structure, and thence have been considered as intermediate between Phsenogamous and Cryptogamous or Acotyledonous plants." Ibid. p. 225.

" A cone has recently been found on the shore of the Isle of Portland, not improbably derived from one of the beds of clay, or 'Dirt/ subordinate to the lower part of the Portland strata, the structure of which, according to Mr. Brown, approaches in some respects to that of Araucaria. I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. David Williams, of Cross, near Bleadon, in Somersetshire, to whom it belongs, for an opportunity of submitting this beautiful spe- cimen to the examination of Mr. Brown, who will, I hope, describe its structure in the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society.' " Ibid. p. 349.

Mr. [now Prof.] Morris, in his appendix to Mr. Prest- wich's memoir "On the Geology of Coalbrook Dale," under the description of pi. xxxviii, says —

" Stigmaria ficoides. In the 'Fossil Flora/ t. 31 — 36, are figures and descriptions of Stigmaria ficoides, and at t. 156 is shown the structure of the same; and although we cannot add much new information to that previously given by Prof. Lindley, it has been thought advisable to have another section represented, with a view of showing what has hitherto not been well illustrated in the published figures of its structure. The internal cylinder in the spe- cimen (fig. 3) is eccentric, and consists of wedge-like por- tions of vascular tissue, the rounded origin of which, inter- nally, is well defined ; these wedges are generally of equal or nearly equal size, but they occasionally become confluent

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