RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY. Presented. G. W. Hill. On the Convergence of the Series used in the subject of F. W. Very. Photometry of a Lunar Eclipse. 1895. Purchased. Liverpool Marine Biology Committee. Fauna of Liverpool, Bay. Reports 1886-1895. I.-IV. And the usual Exchanges and Periodicals. MACS. Me Svecely On a Sporangiferous Spike, from the Middle Coal Measures, near Rochdale. By Thomas Hick, B.A., B.Sc., A.L.S., Assistant Lecturer in Botany, The Owens College, Manchester. (Received December 10th, 1895.) At a meeting of the Manchester Geological Society, held on December 11th, 1894, a fossil Fruit-spike, or Strobilus, was exhibited by S. S. PLATT, Esq., F.G.S., of Rochdale, which attracted some attention, but was not definitely determined. Through the kindness of Mr. Platt, and the good offices of Mr. Bolton, of the Manchester Museum, I have had an opportunity of submitting it to a careful examination, and have drawn up the following description of it. The history of the specimen, previous to its coming into my hands, is given as an introduction to the description, but for this I am indebted to Mr. Platt, who was good enough to supply me with the necessary details. In the first instance the specimen was turned up by a workman in a bed of shale that was being worked for brickmaking at Coptrod, near Rochdale. The geological horizon of the shale is the same as that at Sparth Bottoms, which is a little above the Royley, or Arley Mine, and possibly below the Neddy Mine, both of which belong to the Middle Coal Measures. The shale is irregularly bedded, and at intervals is traversed by bands of the same material, which are harder and more consolidated than the rest. It would be from the top of one of these harder layers that the specimen was obtained. In the matrix in which it is imbedded, the spike lies. as little more than an impression, and is imperfect at both ends. It measures 125 mm. (5 in.) in length, and the breadth across the bases of the bracts, to be afterwards described, is 12 mm., or about half an inch. Here and there small fragments of coal, irregular in shape, lie upon the impression, and suggest that it may have been covered originally by a thin film of that material. Like most of the fruit-spikes found in the coal measures, the one under description consists of, (1) a central axis, which carries at intervals, (2) whorls of bracts, associated with which are, (3) sporangia. On the characters presented by these several parts, the affinities of the spike will depend; but seeing that the fossil has no structure, and only the surface of fracture is open to observation, it will be obvious that whatever affinities may be suggested they can only be regarded as probabilities. The axis is faintly ridged longitudinally, and is for the most part straight, presenting a slight curvature only towards the base, which is probably accidental. It is divided into about 20 internodes, which have a uniform length of 6 mm. (a little over 1-5th inch), save the lowest, which measures 7 or 8 mm. Its greater length suggests the possibility of its being the first internode of the vegetative part of the stem that carried the spike. The breadth of the axis is very uniform along the whole length, and measures about 4 mm. (rather less than 1-6th inch). The nodes at which the bracts are attached are not swollen, but are marked with a shallow transverse groove. In those nearer the lower end are small depressions, which seem to correspond to the insertions of the anterior bracts, which have been lost. The depressions, however, are not well defined, and appear to vary somewhat in position, some being on the groove itself, and others above or below it, so that this inference must be taken with some reservation. It is possible, indeed, that the depressions represent the points of rupture of the vascular strands, rather than the insertion of the bracts, and, if so, the variable position would not be difficult to explain. The appendages to the axis consisted originally of whorls of bracts arising at the nodes, but whether or not they were connate at the base cannot be determined with certainty. The presence of a midrib is also uncertain. The specimen shows that the bracts stood out from the axis horizontally for about 3 or 4 mm., and then turned upward and outward at an angle of about 120°, in which direction they continued for upwards of 10 mm. (2-5ths inch). The erect portion of the bracts appears to have been very narrowly lanceolate in shape, and to have had a somewhat elongated apex. The number in each whorl was not a large one, probably not more than 20; but an exact determination is impossible. The sporangia associated with the bracts are not well preserved, but the appearances point to the conclusion that they were ellipsoidal in form, with the long axis of each slightly inclined to the vertical and towards the free portion of the bracts. The sporangial walls exhibit something like longitudinal foldings; but whether these existed in the living state or have arisen during fossilisation it is impossible to say. On the most critical point of all, viz., the relation of the sporangia to the bracts and the axis of the spike, the evidence of the fossil is practically nil., In no part of it has it been possible to make out the presence of a sporangiophore, a structure whose characteristics are of the first importance as a guide to natural affinities. On the other hand, there is nothing in the fossil to justify the definite conclusion that such a structure did not exist. All that can be said is that the sporangia seem to be sessile on the whorl of bracts |