THE FLORA OF THE COAL FORMATION. 



■I!.', 



hold by numerous cord-like roots, proceeding from various heights on 

 the lower part of the stem.* The fruit was a long cone or spike, bearing 

 spore cases under scales. The Calamites were evidently close relations 

 of the modern horse-tails or scouring-rushes, differing principally in 

 their great size, the want of sheaths at the joints, and the details of 

 the fructification (Fig. 163). 



Most of the points above stated, as well as the conical form of the 

 lower end of these Calamites, which budded out from others, were ex- 

 plained by me in the "Journal of the Geological Society" as far back 

 as 1849, yet the most ridiculous errors are still current in elementary 

 books. 



Nine species of true Calamites have been recognised in Nova Scotia, 

 of which seven occur at the Joggins, the most abundant being C. 

 Suckovii and C Cistii. As just observed, the Calamites grew in 

 dense brakes on sandy and muddy flats, in the manner of modern 

 EquisetaccK, and produced at their nodes either verticillate simple 

 linear leaves, as in C. Cistii, or verticillate branchlets with pinnate 

 or verticillate leaflets, as in C. Suckovii and C. nodosus. The Calamites 

 do not seem to have contributed much to the growth of coal, though 

 their remains are not infrequent in it. The soils in which they 

 most frequently grew were apparently too wet and liable to inunda- 

 tion and silting up to be favourable to coal-accumulation. 



Fig. 164. — Equisetites Curta. 



(a, b) Portions of stem. (c) Sheaths. 



2. Equisetites. — This genus includes a few plants which, like the 

 modern horse-tails, had sheaths at the joints. One species only has 

 been found in Nova Scotia, and little is known of this except the 

 form of the lower part of the stem (Fig. 1G4). 



3. Aster ophyllites. — These beautiful plants do not appear to have 

 been of large size, and, like the other members of this family, probably 



* Quart. Journ. of Geol. Soc, vol. x. p. 34. 



