1869.] GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 83 



stems of Calamodendron showing structure. Cotta, who origin- 

 ally described the structure of Calamodendron, named the genus 

 Calamitea, and figured what he regarded as four distinct speciea 

 in his " Dendrolithen." Brongniart regards two of the four 

 species as probably coniferous; and for this reason, as well as 

 the too close resemblance of the names Calamitea aud Calamltes, 

 proposes for the genus the name Calamodendron. 



Mr. Binney, in the monograph before us, has figured portions 

 of four specimens having internal striated or ribbed axes, and radi- 

 ating bundles of wood-cells with transversely elongated pores, of the 

 type already referred to, and which also occur in the remarkable 

 Protnpitys of Goepp- rt from the lower carboniferous of Silesia. 

 Mr. Binney refers all his specimens to one species, Calamodendron 

 commune^ though one of them certainly appears to difi'er suffi- 

 ciently from the others to warrant a specific distinction. The 

 q^^estion what these specimens really are, with relation to de- 

 scribed genera of carboniferous plants, is, however, somewhat 

 difficult to settle, in the absence of the alternating zones of wood- 

 cells and peculiar medullary rays of Calamitea as described by 

 Cotta and Unger, and characterized by Brongniart as an organiz- 

 ation '' toute speciale." This diiference should have suggested some 

 doubt as to the identity of these curious specimens with Calamo- 

 dendron ; and we think it not improbable that they will be found 

 on further investigation to be entirely distinct from Calamitea of 

 Cotta or Calamodendron of Brongniart. Ou the other hand it is 

 perfectly clear that they have no connection whatever with Cala- 

 mites proper, and cannot even belong to the same family with 

 that genus, with which they have in reality no closer connection 

 than that of accidental similarity of markings. Mr. Binney 's 

 specimens are, however, evidently nearer to Calamodendron than 

 to Calamites ; and this is all that can be said of them with safety 

 with our present information. 



It is singular that Mr. Binney, who described erect Calamites 

 in 1847, and who is well acquainted with erect Sigillarise, should 

 not perceive that the fact of the former standing erect in sand- 

 stone, with their roots attached as Mr, Binney has observed, and 

 even with their leaves attached to the nodes as the writer showed 

 in his paper of 1854, is absolute proof that they are not internal 

 axes, but in reality casts of entire stems. 



It is alf-o somewhat strange to find such a statement as that on 

 page 17 that "for many years Asterophyllites has been known as 



