Miscellaneous. 235 
lower part of the body. Pedicle long, and much dilated at base. 
Colour light yellow. Found, in November ee attached to the 
intestinal canal of Herbstia nodosa. 
The author remarks that the Sacculinidous parasite of C. menas, 
after getting rid of its ova, has a very transparent envelope of a 
light bluish colour. Through this the body of the parasite is visible, 
shifted to the upper part of the envelope, close to the buccal orifice 
and pedicle; it is opaque, and of a yellow colour. After a time the 
parasite dies, shrivels, and becomes detached, when its former posi- 
tion is indicated only by a chitinous ring. From this, flat squamous 
corneous pieces are seen to radiate towards the centre: these have 
denticulated margins ; they leave at the centre an oval orifice, esta- 
blishing the communication between the parasite and its victim. 
These parts are probably moveable, and may, by rising or sinking, 
alter the size of the orifice. In course of time all these traces of the 
presence of the parasite become obliterated.—Ann. Scr. Nat. sér. 5. 
tome viii. pp. 377-381. 
On the Calamites and Fossil Equiseta. 
By M. Scuimper. 
M. Schimper has referred to the Equisetinez of the Carboniferous, 
Triassic, and Jurassic periods, and has endeavoured to prove that 
the Calamites ought to have their place in that group of vascular 
Cryptogamia, not only because of the external and internal struc- 
ture of the stem, but also because of their organs of fructification, 
which show a great analogy with those of the Equiseta of the pre- 
sent epoch. He has shown that the fossil spikes that were taken 
for spikes of Calamites, and which are remarkable for their great 
resemblance to the catkins of the Lycopodiacex, do not belong to 
the Calamites, but to Annularia and Sphenophyllum, fossil genera 
which establish the passage from the Hquiseta to the Lycopodiacee. 
M. Schimper has also proved, by means of some fine specimens 
and a number of drawings, that all the fossil trunks of the Bunter 
Sandstone, of the Keuper, and of the Rhetic strata, that had 
been designated under the names of Calamites, belong to thegenus 
Equisetum. 
The trunks of these gigantic Hquiseta had a diameter of more 
than 12 centimetres and a height of from 8 to 10 metres; the 
branches which adorned the higher parts of them, in the form of 
a crown, were simple, and bore at their extremity a spike of the 
size of a pigeon’s egg and organized exactly like the spikes of our 
living Equiseta. The subterranean rhizomes were well developed, 
and gave origin, like those of many of our Equiseta, to tubercles 
which had the form and size of a hen’s egg. 
According to M. Schimper, EHquisetwm columnare (Brongn.), of the 
Oolite of Scarborough, is specifically different from the homonymous 
species of the Keuper.—/Société d’ Hist. Nat. de Strasbourg, Feb. 5, 
1868; Bibl. Univ. Aug. 15, 1868, Bull. Sei. pp. 325-326. 
