328 CALAMARIEAE. 



small undeveloped sister-cells of the tetrad still distinguishable at their apex. 

 Moreover in one of the specimens figured by Williamson 1 the spores were 

 united in tetrads and still surrounded by the mother-cell, but this might be 

 explained by the young condition of the fructification when it was buried. 

 The view lately expressed by Renault on the subject of Calamostachys 

 Binneyana will be noticed presently, when we are considering the species 

 which he has examined. 



Weiss 2 has given the name of Calamostachys superba to a spike known 

 only in longitudinal fracture, which, though not very well preserved, presents 

 essentially the same conditions as the forms already noticed. Whether the 

 leaves of the sterile whorls, which are marked by the excessive elongation 

 of their apical parts, cohere or not cannot be ascertained, as the specimen 

 shows only the true radial section. It comes from the Augustus mine in 

 the Plauensche Grund near Dresden, and is imbedded in a whitish clay. 

 There is no exact account of the mode of preservation. There is another 

 specimen with it in the Museum at Dresden which was found in the same 

 spot, and which Weiss 3 -has named Calamostachys mira. Its radial longi- 

 tudinal section shows most distinctly the position of the two kinds of whorls 

 and the point of attachment of the sporangia. But it also shows a portion 

 of the surface ; we see the free apices of the sterile leaves, which have un- 

 doubtedly become united together below into a horizontal lamina after the 

 manner of Calamostachys Binneyana. From the place where the leaf is 

 bent, and which is not covered by leaves of the whorl next beneath it, a 

 lamclliform emergence hangs down like a curtain, the form and limits of 

 which cannot be determined, but which appears even on the sides of the 

 fracture in the form of a fine line of through section running down in front 

 of the sporangiophores. Weiss says of it 4 , ' bracts . . . with a reflexed 

 appendage protecting the sporangia.' We find something like it also in 

 Huttonia. Weiss also cites as perhaps analogous with this form a specimen 

 described and figured by Renault 5 and named Macrostachya infundi- 

 buliformis, but which is of so questionable a character that I should not 

 attribute much importance to it. 



Mention must also be made here of an object from Autun of which a 

 section was made by Renault 6 , and which was described by him as the 

 fructification of Annularia longifolia. It is evidently a true Calamostachys, 

 though the attachment of the sporangia to the sporangiophore is not clearly 

 shown, and the sterile whorls of entirely free lanceolate leaves, being spread 

 out flat, and even bent a little backwards in the basal portion, do not 

 cover the fertile leaves from the outside. The distinguishing mark in 

 this spike is that its axis, which has a similar structure to that of Equisetum, 



1 Williamson (1), x, t. 15, f. 27. a Weiss (6), t. 4, f. 2. 3 Weiss (6),t. 3, f. i, and t. 4, f. i. 

 Weiss (6), p. 43. 5 Renault (2), vol. ii, t. 19, ff. 7, 8. * Renault (16 and 2), vol. ii, t. 21, f. a. 



