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349 
ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE FRUIT OF CALAMITES. 
By Wm. Carruthers, Esq., F.L.S., 
Botanical Department, British Museum. 
(Plate LXX.) 
Rudolph Ludwig figured and described in the tenth volume of 
Meyer's c Paheontographiea ' (1861) certain fruit-spikes which he had 
ascertained to belong to Calamites. The external form, and even the 
shape and arrangement, of the sporangia were admirably exhibited in 
his specimens ; but the state in which they were preserved was such 
that neither the minute structure of the organism nor the nature of the 
contents of the sporangia could be determined, — so that, although the 
author was strongly inclined to consider these fruits as belonging to a 
Cryptogam, there was nothing to show that the supposed sporangia 
were not true seeds. 
In prosecuting my inquiries into the plants of the Coal Period, Dr. 
Hooker, in the most liberal manner, placed his valuable collection of 
sliced fossils at my command, and granted me the freest use of any spe- 
cimens that would assist me in my investigations. From his cabinet 
I obtained several interesting sections of stems of Calamites, prepared 
by E. W. Binney, Esq., in 1854. On examining the specimens, I 
observed that numerous small strobili had been cut through in every 
direction, and that many of these were beautifully preserved, some 
showing their structure as perfectly as if they were fresh plants. Al- 
though differing in form and size, and in other characters which I shall 
presently point out, from the strobili figured by Ludwig, they agree in 
so many respects that I have no doubt they belonged to the same tribe 
of plants,— that, in fact, they are the fruits of the Calamites, stems 
and branches of which abound in the noduli in which they occur. 
To prevent confusion in my descriptions, and following the practice 
necessarily adopted by palaeontologists of giving to fruits that cannot 
be correlated with particular species a provisional name, 1 propose to 
employ the generic name Folkmannia, proposed by Sternberg for some 
of these fruits figured by him in his ' Flora der Vonvelt.' Brongniart 
lias already referred this genus to AxteropliyUifes. In his valuable 
VOL. V. [dBCSMBSR 1j 1867.] 2 B 
