With Plates TTYYTT and XYYTTT, and four Figures in the Text M ORE than thirty-seven years ago Williamson described before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 1 ' A New Form of Calamitean Strobilus', from a fragmentary calcified specimen which Mr. Butterworth had found in a nodule from the Upper Foot Coal at Roe Buck, in Strinesdale, Saddleworth. The title of that paper is interesting. It was a ' new' Calamitean cone, because another had already been described by Carruthers and Binney, and the latter cone {Calamostachys) was admitted by Williamson to be Calamitean. Indeed, he states (p. 261) regarding the two cones that ' the differences which they present' are ' but generic, not ordinal ones', and, further on, he argues that his new cone must be Calamitean 'since no one appears to doubt that such is the character of Mr. Binney's strobilus'. Early in 1887 more specimens of the new cone were found among nodules from the Oldham district, and were described by Williamson in the same year before the Royal Society 2 as 'The True Fructification of Calamites.' As is well known, the title of this second paper was meant to emphasize Williamson's later conviction, that Calamostachys could not be a Calamitean cone. With the true ardour of a man who is sure of his new belief, he tells us ' Mr. Carruthers believed he had found it [the fruit of Catamites'] in Calamostachys Binneyana, and Mr. Binney arrived at a similar conclusion. I have always rejected these conclusions because of the conspicuous differences between the morphology of the Calamitean twig and that of the axis of Calamostachys! As a memorial of this new belief, Seward, 3 when he referred the 'True Fructification ' to Weiss's genus Palaeostachya, chose ' vera' as the specific designation.
I. Introduction. The fossil with which this paper deals has now been a subject of speculation for more than three-quarters of a century. The problem of its nature has persistently been forced upon all who happen to have worked in the localities where it occurs. Its abundance, as in the Forfarshire area, for instance, its peculiarities of form and preservation, and its almost meaningless appearance—all tend to produce in any responsive observer a desire to explain its nature. This paper is a joint statement of two entirely-independent investigations. At the Dundee meeting of the British Association in 1912 one of us (A. W. R. D.) made a communication on the subject of Parka (30), and it was not until then that we each became aware of the other's work. On comparing our conclusions, we found that they were, for the most part, in entire agreement. It therefore seemed desirable that an already overburdened literature should not be unnecessarily weighted by two separate papers, and we then decided to make a joint statement. Naturally enough, not every point noticed by one had been observed by the other; nor were the methods of investigation employed invariably identical, although for the most part we both made use of Schulze's macerating fluid. One of us (G. H.), for example, succeeded in cutting cross-sections of the plant (see Pl. LIV, figs. 11 & 12). Hence we feel that this joint paper is more complete, and, in a sense, more authoritative, than any communication from either
The Lower Old Red Sandstone of Forfar and Kincardine is upwards of 14,000 feet in thickness. No indication of a base or natural top is seen in the district. The characteristic fossils of this series have all been obtained from its middle beds within a vertical range of less than 4,000 feet. There is no palæontological evidence of the age of the beds above or below that zone. It is concluded, on physical and palæontological grounds, that the fossiliferous beds of the Orcadian area are really younger than those of Forfarshire, but there is no proof that the higher part of the Forfarshire series was not contemporaneous with the Orcadian deposits.The folding of the Lower Old Red strata into the syncline and anticline parallel to the Highland boundary fault took place subsequently to the deposition of the whole of those strata. This folding, and denudation to the extent of 8,000 feet over the anticlinal axis, were accomplished after the deposition of the Lower and before the beginning of the Upper Old Red. The surface on which the Upper Old Red rests, in Forfarshire, is broadly horizontal, but very uneven—evidently an old land-surface.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.