29 



CANADIAN FOSSILS. 



in a large number of specimens which I have examined, leads to the con- 

 clusion that it was a plant of considerable size and extensively branching. 

 In one specimen of a slender branch I have found the leaves still attached 

 to one of the nodes (Fig. 42). They were extremely long and narrow 

 like those of (7. cistii of the Carboniferous. I now find that the long leaves, 

 which I formerly referred with doubt to Sternberg's Aster ophy Hit es 

 longifolia, are probably the leaves of this species, borne often on very 

 slender branchlets. Goeppert, on the evidence of internal structure, re- 

 gards this plant as intermediate between Calamites and CaJamodendron. 

 Its leaves would go far to prove that it is a true Calamites. 



Schimper places the two preceding species in the genus Bornia of 

 Roemer (not of Sternberg), characterizing this genus by the continuous 

 ribs, dichotomous leaves and ovate elliptic strobiles, having scales each 

 with a scar in the centre of its exterior surface. Goeppert has also shown 

 that the tissues of Calamites transitionis are somewhat intermediate 

 between those of Calamites proper and CaJamodendron, These 

 considerations are certainly sufficient td warrant at least a sub-generic 

 distinction. With regard to one of them, however, I do not find it to be 

 borne out by ray specimens, which show that the leaves were not bifurcate, 

 as represented by Schimper, but simple, and of the same texture with the 

 leaves of ordinary Calamites, and the branchlets of Equisetum. It was in 

 studying the leaves of this plant from St. John, that I first observed the 

 delicate microscopic transverse striation represented in Fig. 42 b, and 

 which I afterwards found in the leaves of Carboniferous Calamites and of 

 the modem Equisetum limosum. This peculiar marking results, in the 

 branchlets of the modern Equisetum, from the arrangement of rows of 

 transverse stomata or breathing pores, and no doubt shows a similar 

 arrangement in the ancient Calamites. This observation, which establishes 

 the homology between the leaves of Calamites and the branchlets of 

 Equiseta, will be referred to farther on under Aster ophyllites, as a means 

 of distinguishing these plants from Calamites. I mention it now merely to 

 indicate what, if Schimper's observation is correct, will constitute an 

 essential difference between the St. John plant and the C. transitionis of 

 Europe. Schimper, I may add, identifies this species with C. radiatus of 

 Brongniart. 



24. Calamites cannaepormis, Schlotheira.— (PI. IV, Figs. 47, 48.)— 

 J. G. S., XVIII, 310.— M. D., St. John, New Brunswick. 



I have examined a number of additional specimens representing this 

 species, from the Devonian of New Brunswick, but cannot find any charac- 





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-Mim 





