On Parka decipiens

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
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

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit: