CALAMARIEAE. 



Annulariae, answering nearly to Annularia radiata, Brongn., attached as leafy 

 branches to Calamites ramosus, Artis. He says on this point : ' Calamites, 

 which is particularly easy to recognise in the older portions of its stem by 

 the form of its members, by its ribbing, by the large scars of the main 

 branches, and indeed by its general habit, permits of our bringing a large 

 number of fragments together with certainty under one species. The con- 

 siderable number of individuals, which have been found recently in the 

 Ruben mine near Neurode in Lower Silesia, almost all in the clay-slate 

 roof of seam No. 7, and have been most diligently collected, often in great 

 slabs, by Chief-Inspector Volkel, has enabled us to form a more perfect idea 

 of the whole plant in this case than in any other that could be named. The 

 numerous figures which we have given of it rest upon a much larger number 

 of original specimens, so that where there may still be some gaps observable 

 in our figures, we might venture in fact to fill them in, and we believe there 

 can be no longer any doubt as to whether all the single pieces here brought 

 together really belong to one another.' Hence both Asterophyllitae and 

 Annulariae may belong as leafy branches to Calamitae, though it does not 

 follow, as Weiss has well shown., that they must in all cases have belonged 

 to them. It may prove that there were arborescent and herbaceous forms 

 with similar leaves in the group of Calamariae. In any case the classifica- 

 tion of Renault 1 , who constitutes two separate families, Asterophylliteae 

 and Annularieae, in his heterosporous Equisetinae, is thus shown to be 

 quite arbitrary. 



We have long been acquainted with a large and constantly increasing 

 number of spike-like remains of fructifications with lateral sporangiferous 

 members arranged in whorls. As some of these fructifications have been 

 found connected in a way which admits of no doubt with specimens of 

 Calamariae, we may assume that the rest of them also belong to that 

 group. Heterospory has very recently been ascertained in two instances, 

 the macrosporangia occupying the basal, the microsporangia the apical 

 portion of the spike. Williamson 2 showed this in the case of a spike 

 supposed to belong to Calamostachys Binneyana, and Renault 3 in that of 

 another which he describes as belonging to Annularia longifolia. Whether 

 this fact is to be assumed as true of all spikes of Calamariae, as is done by 

 Renault, had better be left undecided, and such is Weiss' opinion. The 

 cases of Lycopodium and Selaginella warn us to be cautious in drawing 

 such conclusions. 



The spikes, like the other parts of the plants, are presented to us, as 

 might be expected, in different states of preservation. They are either 

 petrified, and then we are able to study the details of their structure ; or 

 they appear in impressions, in which case, if the lateral members have been 



Renault (2), vol. ii. 3 Williamson (1), xi, t. 54. 3 Renault (16 and 2), vol. ii. 



