Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2012
The Kidston Collection of fossil plant slides includes sections of two very interesting specimens of Sigillaria elegans Brongniart, which were not in Kidston's possession when he wrote his two papers on Sigillarian anatomy (1905, 1907). The first of these specimens was found by W. Hemingway in 1908 at Laneshaw Bridge, Colne, Lancashire, in the Halifax Hard Bed (Lanarkian Series), and is represented in the Kidston Collection by two transverse sections (Nos. 1533, 1534). No notes of Kidston's relevant to the identification of this specimen have been found. Mr Hemingway, however, has been good enough to tell me that before he cut the specimen he recognised the leaf-scars, which were exposed on one side, as those of Sigillaria elegans; he submitted the specimen in this condition to Kidston, who confirmed the identification before sections were taken. The second specimen is from the Halifax Hard Bed of Fieldhouse Colliery, Deighton, Yorkshire, and was collected by G. H. Knott. A brief note saying that the specimen was identified from the exposed leaf-cushions as Sigillaria elegans has been found amongst manuscript notes of Kidston's relevant to the slides in his collection. This specimen is represented by sixteen sections (Nos. 1845-1860), cut by Hemingway, two of which are transverse and the remainder longitudinal. Both these specimens show certain structural features not observed in the anatomical type specimen of Sigillaria elegans described by Kidston (1905), and the present note may be regarded as supplementary to his original description.