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Address on fossil plants from various formations
ON FOSSIL PLANTS FROM VARIOUS FORMATIONS.
329
glazed by boiling in milk, still in use in the island of Lewis ; recent Echini, minerals and fossils. By Frank Rutley, Esq., F.G.S.: Microsoopio sections of obsidians, traohytes, felstones, altered slates, &0. By J. Slade, Esq.: Section of tooth of Dendrodus, and Cyprids in Purbeck limestone. By G. J. Smith, Esq.: Felstone from Carrooh, Cumberland, and hornblendic granite of Cleopatra's Needle. By W. F. Stanley, Esq., F.G.F;.: Sections of coal, By E. W. Streeter, Esq.; Diamonds and models of great diamonds. By J. J. Harris Teall, Esq., F.G.S.: Apparatus for determining the density of heavy solutions used in petrological research, and section of quartzite in whioh the optical properties of the grains have been modified by pressure.
The following addresses were then given : 'On Pre-historic Man, and recently extinct Mammalia,' by HENRY WOODWARP, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., with lantern illustrations. , On Fossil Plants from various formations,' by W. FA.WCETT, B.Sc., F.L.S., with lantern illustrations. IOn Rocks and Rock-sections,' by W. H. HUDLESTON, M.A., F.G.S., with lantern illustrations, these in each case being kindly lent by Mr. George Smith. , On the Volcanic Eruption at Krakatoa,' by G. A. J. COLE, F.G.S. ADDRESS ON FOSSIL PLANTS FROM VARIOUS FORMATIONS. By WILLIAM FAWCETT, B.Sc., F.L.S. The earliest land-plants, preserved in a fossil state, are vascular cryptogams, such as Ferns, Lycopods, and Equisetaceai. One of the most interesting of the ferns was found in Upper Devonian beds in Kilkenny. It was first described by Edward Forbes at the British Association Meeting, at Belfast, in 1852, and named by him Cyclopteris hibernica (Palaopteris of Schimper). The pinnules are obovate, with the veins radiating from the base. In the fertile pinnse, the primary vein of each pinnule becomes an axis on which are borne the two-lipped capsules, containing the sporangia. The fruit is so like that of the modern Tunbridge Wells Fern (Hymenophyllum tunbridgense), that if it were living at the
330
w.
FAWCETT ON FOS SIL PLA.NTS
present day, it could not be separated generically. A ssociated with the fern occurs II fresh-water mussel (Anodonta J ukesii) . The Carboniferous formati on contains abundant evidence of the vegetable life of the period. Besides ferns, the remains occur of Lepidodendron, Siqillaria, Calamit es, and of Coniferous trees such as Dadoxylon. Lepidodendron, though a tree, belongs to the same Natural Order as our humble Club-Mosses. The structur e of th e cone (Lepidostroblls) is the same as that of S elaginella, consisting of bracts supporting in the axils sporangia, th e large spores being born e in the lower part, and the small spores in th e upper part of the cone, Th e plant deriv es its generic name from th e scars left by th e decayed leaves. The roots were like those of S igilla ria. A Sigillaria, found by Mr Binney, in Lancashire, with the stigmarian roots attached , established what had been surmised before, that Stiqmaria was the root of Sigillaria. The stem is marked with the seal-like impressions of the decayed leaves, whence the name. The stem of Calamites is joint ed, but not externally fluted , as generally supposed, th e flutings, when present , being the cast of th e soft cellular axis which had decayed before the hard er vascular tissue, its place being filled by the sand or clay which eventually harden ed so as to resist th e pressure. The roots were considered to be a distinct genu s, and were called Pinnularia, Three types of foliage belong to Calamites, ( a ) Asterophqllites, with slender, thread-like leaves, (b) Annularia, with broader leaves, and (c) Sphenophyllum, with wedge-shaped leaves, The structure of the cone agre es generically with that of Equisetum, but the fru it-h earing scales alternate with whorls of alte red leaves. The cones were described as Volkm ann ia before th ey were known to have been produc ed by Calamites. D adoxylon is the stem of a coniferous tree, Wh en the pith decayed, it was, as in Calamites, replaced by sand , and this cast, when found by itself, has been called Sternberqia. A tran sverse section of Dadoxylon shows th e cellular structure of the pith and the medullary rays. The fruits named from th eir shape Triqonocarpon, are supposed to be the fruit of Dadoxylon. If tbis be so, this coniferous tree would be one of the Taeinece. The somewhat abnormal fronds of the fern Cycloptel'is were at first thought to be th e leaves of Dadoxylon. The fruiting spike -bearing Cardiocarpon (Antlwlites of Lin dley)
331
FROM VARIOUS FORMATIONS.
probably belonged to Flabellaria, which would, if this be SO, be a true Gymnosperm, and not, as its name would imply, a palm. A beautiful restoration of a coal forest by Mr. Carruthers, drawn by Mr. W. G. Smith, gives the general appearance of the plants which are known to form the great bulk of our ordinary coal. In the Permian formation conifers increase in numbers. Walchia pinniformis is a characteristic plant of this period. It is the earliest conifer which appears from its foliage and cones to be related to our present Abietinea, The fern Sphenopteris gracilis is found in the Wealden, a formation not unlike the Coal Measures in the mode in which the buried vegetation is carbonised and preserved in the shales. Among types of vegetation from the Middle Eocene beds of Alum Bay and Bournemouth, forms resembling the Beech, Maple, and Oak are readily recognised; Feather-Palms and Fan-Palms were abundant; Smilax, Aralia, and Laurus appear together with Dryandra and Stenocarpus, genera of Proteacece, confined at the present day to Australia," The American rocks containing similar plants appear, from the associated animal remains, to be older, and perhaps carry back Dicotyledons into the upper Secondary rocks. Sequoia Couttsice is found in the Miocene] beds of Bovey Tracey. It belongs to the same genus as the famous Mammoth Tree of California. The Sequoias of Tertiary times are found in Arctic regions and European deposits, but are now confined to a very limited area in western North America. Several species of this genus have been described by Mr. Carruthers from secondary rocks, and these were associated with pines of the same character as those growing with the living Sequoias in America. The Miocene beds of Bovey Tracey belong to a later flora than that of Alum Bay, and it is interesting to notice that the single genus Cinnamomum~ affords material for a large display of varied forms. A landscape, after Heel', in Switzerland during the Miocene
* According to Mr. J. Starkie Gardner, many, if not all the supposed Smilax leaves are Dioscorea, as their three-winged seeds are found abundantly and seeds of Smilax are absent, and the so-called Dryandra is eel" tainly a Myrica.-[ED.] t These beds are now admitted to be of Middle Bagshot age, i.e., contemporaneous with those of Bournemouth, and but little later than those of Alum Bay (Lower Bagshot), (Vide J. S. Gardner, s1pra, p. 310).-[ED.] t There is, according to Mr. Gardner, but one known species of Cinnamomum at Bournemouth and Bovey, the majority of forms so-called being Diosccrea, (Vide supm, p. 300).-[ED.] 24
832
ON FOSSII. PLANTS FROM VARIOUS FOR1tlATIONS.
period, exhibits forms of vegetation which are familiar to us, bnt nowhere in the same combination. The Manica ria , a genus of palms only found now in the Amazons, flourishes with Proteacece, Acacias, Willows, Fan-Palms, Feather·Palms like the Date, Pine Trees, Walnut, Swamp Cypress, Sedges, Poplars, and the climbing Lygodium. NOTES ON THE KRAKATOA ERUPTION,
By
GRENVILLE
A. J.
1883.
COLE, F.G.S.
On May 20th, 1883, the island of Krakatoa, in the entrance of the Sunda Straits, was seen to be in full eruption, and two days later floating pumice was encountered at a distance of from ten to twenty miles. A party from Batavia visited the centre of activity, and found the adjoining Verlaten and Lang Islands already covered with ashes, and all vegetation practically destroyed. The quantity of fragmentary materials ejected at this paroxysmic stage and during the succeeding months appears to have given rise to far-reaching drifts and banks of pumice,'*' met with in July and August between Java and Australia, and 900 miles westward towards the Chagos Group, particularly about 60 S. latitude. The fine dust, of which this was the coarser representative, may in the same time have been air-borne to far greater distances j and, indeed, as early as May 21st, one vessel, the Lucia, experienced a fall of such material at a distance south-west of some 300 miles. Hence the violence of the earlier period of the eruption may be taken as considerable, and its shattering effect upon the islandmass as opening the way for the gigantic outburst that was to come. With what happened on August 27th all are now familiar. Through the previous day the detonations had become more vehement, and vessels at evening experienced dense ash-showers-the Airlie reporting "fine grey sand" falling on her, with a noise of distant explosions when at l'east 300 miles north of Krakatoa. But, as Mts. Merapi and Sipaiak of Sumatra are both stated to have been in eruption at this date, too much stress must not be laid on such observations at a distance. It is clear that other dust accompanied that of Krakatoa. .. The suggestion of other centres of eruption, to account for some of these C' Proc, Roy. Geographical Soc.', March, 1884, p. 142), requires con· firmation, Maps accompany the paper.
329
glazed by boiling in milk, still in use in the island of Lewis ; recent Echini, minerals and fossils. By Frank Rutley, Esq., F.G.S.: Microsoopio sections of obsidians, traohytes, felstones, altered slates, &0. By J. Slade, Esq.: Section of tooth of Dendrodus, and Cyprids in Purbeck limestone. By G. J. Smith, Esq.: Felstone from Carrooh, Cumberland, and hornblendic granite of Cleopatra's Needle. By W. F. Stanley, Esq., F.G.F;.: Sections of coal, By E. W. Streeter, Esq.; Diamonds and models of great diamonds. By J. J. Harris Teall, Esq., F.G.S.: Apparatus for determining the density of heavy solutions used in petrological research, and section of quartzite in whioh the optical properties of the grains have been modified by pressure.
The following addresses were then given : 'On Pre-historic Man, and recently extinct Mammalia,' by HENRY WOODWARP, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., with lantern illustrations. , On Fossil Plants from various formations,' by W. FA.WCETT, B.Sc., F.L.S., with lantern illustrations. IOn Rocks and Rock-sections,' by W. H. HUDLESTON, M.A., F.G.S., with lantern illustrations, these in each case being kindly lent by Mr. George Smith. , On the Volcanic Eruption at Krakatoa,' by G. A. J. COLE, F.G.S. ADDRESS ON FOSSIL PLANTS FROM VARIOUS FORMATIONS. By WILLIAM FAWCETT, B.Sc., F.L.S. The earliest land-plants, preserved in a fossil state, are vascular cryptogams, such as Ferns, Lycopods, and Equisetaceai. One of the most interesting of the ferns was found in Upper Devonian beds in Kilkenny. It was first described by Edward Forbes at the British Association Meeting, at Belfast, in 1852, and named by him Cyclopteris hibernica (Palaopteris of Schimper). The pinnules are obovate, with the veins radiating from the base. In the fertile pinnse, the primary vein of each pinnule becomes an axis on which are borne the two-lipped capsules, containing the sporangia. The fruit is so like that of the modern Tunbridge Wells Fern (Hymenophyllum tunbridgense), that if it were living at the
330
w.
FAWCETT ON FOS SIL PLA.NTS
present day, it could not be separated generically. A ssociated with the fern occurs II fresh-water mussel (Anodonta J ukesii) . The Carboniferous formati on contains abundant evidence of the vegetable life of the period. Besides ferns, the remains occur of Lepidodendron, Siqillaria, Calamit es, and of Coniferous trees such as Dadoxylon. Lepidodendron, though a tree, belongs to the same Natural Order as our humble Club-Mosses. The structur e of th e cone (Lepidostroblls) is the same as that of S elaginella, consisting of bracts supporting in the axils sporangia, th e large spores being born e in the lower part, and the small spores in th e upper part of the cone, Th e plant deriv es its generic name from th e scars left by th e decayed leaves. The roots were like those of S igilla ria. A Sigillaria, found by Mr Binney, in Lancashire, with the stigmarian roots attached , established what had been surmised before, that Stiqmaria was the root of Sigillaria. The stem is marked with the seal-like impressions of the decayed leaves, whence the name. The stem of Calamites is joint ed, but not externally fluted , as generally supposed, th e flutings, when present , being the cast of th e soft cellular axis which had decayed before the hard er vascular tissue, its place being filled by the sand or clay which eventually harden ed so as to resist th e pressure. The roots were considered to be a distinct genu s, and were called Pinnularia, Three types of foliage belong to Calamites, ( a ) Asterophqllites, with slender, thread-like leaves, (b) Annularia, with broader leaves, and (c) Sphenophyllum, with wedge-shaped leaves, The structure of the cone agre es generically with that of Equisetum, but the fru it-h earing scales alternate with whorls of alte red leaves. The cones were described as Volkm ann ia before th ey were known to have been produc ed by Calamites. D adoxylon is the stem of a coniferous tree, Wh en the pith decayed, it was, as in Calamites, replaced by sand , and this cast, when found by itself, has been called Sternberqia. A tran sverse section of Dadoxylon shows th e cellular structure of the pith and the medullary rays. The fruits named from th eir shape Triqonocarpon, are supposed to be the fruit of Dadoxylon. If tbis be so, this coniferous tree would be one of the Taeinece. The somewhat abnormal fronds of the fern Cycloptel'is were at first thought to be th e leaves of Dadoxylon. The fruiting spike -bearing Cardiocarpon (Antlwlites of Lin dley)
331
FROM VARIOUS FORMATIONS.
probably belonged to Flabellaria, which would, if this be SO, be a true Gymnosperm, and not, as its name would imply, a palm. A beautiful restoration of a coal forest by Mr. Carruthers, drawn by Mr. W. G. Smith, gives the general appearance of the plants which are known to form the great bulk of our ordinary coal. In the Permian formation conifers increase in numbers. Walchia pinniformis is a characteristic plant of this period. It is the earliest conifer which appears from its foliage and cones to be related to our present Abietinea, The fern Sphenopteris gracilis is found in the Wealden, a formation not unlike the Coal Measures in the mode in which the buried vegetation is carbonised and preserved in the shales. Among types of vegetation from the Middle Eocene beds of Alum Bay and Bournemouth, forms resembling the Beech, Maple, and Oak are readily recognised; Feather-Palms and Fan-Palms were abundant; Smilax, Aralia, and Laurus appear together with Dryandra and Stenocarpus, genera of Proteacece, confined at the present day to Australia," The American rocks containing similar plants appear, from the associated animal remains, to be older, and perhaps carry back Dicotyledons into the upper Secondary rocks. Sequoia Couttsice is found in the Miocene] beds of Bovey Tracey. It belongs to the same genus as the famous Mammoth Tree of California. The Sequoias of Tertiary times are found in Arctic regions and European deposits, but are now confined to a very limited area in western North America. Several species of this genus have been described by Mr. Carruthers from secondary rocks, and these were associated with pines of the same character as those growing with the living Sequoias in America. The Miocene beds of Bovey Tracey belong to a later flora than that of Alum Bay, and it is interesting to notice that the single genus Cinnamomum~ affords material for a large display of varied forms. A landscape, after Heel', in Switzerland during the Miocene
* According to Mr. J. Starkie Gardner, many, if not all the supposed Smilax leaves are Dioscorea, as their three-winged seeds are found abundantly and seeds of Smilax are absent, and the so-called Dryandra is eel" tainly a Myrica.-[ED.] t These beds are now admitted to be of Middle Bagshot age, i.e., contemporaneous with those of Bournemouth, and but little later than those of Alum Bay (Lower Bagshot), (Vide J. S. Gardner, s1pra, p. 310).-[ED.] t There is, according to Mr. Gardner, but one known species of Cinnamomum at Bournemouth and Bovey, the majority of forms so-called being Diosccrea, (Vide supm, p. 300).-[ED.] 24
832
ON FOSSII. PLANTS FROM VARIOUS FOR1tlATIONS.
period, exhibits forms of vegetation which are familiar to us, bnt nowhere in the same combination. The Manica ria , a genus of palms only found now in the Amazons, flourishes with Proteacece, Acacias, Willows, Fan-Palms, Feather·Palms like the Date, Pine Trees, Walnut, Swamp Cypress, Sedges, Poplars, and the climbing Lygodium. NOTES ON THE KRAKATOA ERUPTION,
By
GRENVILLE
A. J.
1883.
COLE, F.G.S.
On May 20th, 1883, the island of Krakatoa, in the entrance of the Sunda Straits, was seen to be in full eruption, and two days later floating pumice was encountered at a distance of from ten to twenty miles. A party from Batavia visited the centre of activity, and found the adjoining Verlaten and Lang Islands already covered with ashes, and all vegetation practically destroyed. The quantity of fragmentary materials ejected at this paroxysmic stage and during the succeeding months appears to have given rise to far-reaching drifts and banks of pumice,'*' met with in July and August between Java and Australia, and 900 miles westward towards the Chagos Group, particularly about 60 S. latitude. The fine dust, of which this was the coarser representative, may in the same time have been air-borne to far greater distances j and, indeed, as early as May 21st, one vessel, the Lucia, experienced a fall of such material at a distance south-west of some 300 miles. Hence the violence of the earlier period of the eruption may be taken as considerable, and its shattering effect upon the islandmass as opening the way for the gigantic outburst that was to come. With what happened on August 27th all are now familiar. Through the previous day the detonations had become more vehement, and vessels at evening experienced dense ash-showers-the Airlie reporting "fine grey sand" falling on her, with a noise of distant explosions when at l'east 300 miles north of Krakatoa. But, as Mts. Merapi and Sipaiak of Sumatra are both stated to have been in eruption at this date, too much stress must not be laid on such observations at a distance. It is clear that other dust accompanied that of Krakatoa. .. The suggestion of other centres of eruption, to account for some of these C' Proc, Roy. Geographical Soc.', March, 1884, p. 142), requires con· firmation, Maps accompany the paper.