ON THE CARBONIFEROUS FLORA OF HALIFAX. 235 



Rejport of the Gommlttee consisting of Professor W. C. Williamson 

 and Mr. Cash, for the 'purpose of investigating the Gar- 

 honiferoits Flora of Halifax and its neighbourhood. (Brawn 

 up by Professor W. C. Williamson.) 



Our researches during the past year in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Halifax have been less productive than usual ; but this unfruitfulness 

 has been in some degree compensated by successes in the surrounding 

 district. Most notable amongst the latter has been the discovery of mate- 

 rial enabling us to determine with absolute certainty the fructification of 

 the Calamites. A fragment of a fruit was described in 1869 in the ' Memoirs 

 of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester,' peculiarities in 

 the internal structure of which led the author of that communication to an 

 important conclusion. None of the many Carboniferous fruits previously 

 discovered displayed an internal structure that corresponded in any 

 degree with tbat of Calamites. It was otherwise with the specimen just 

 referred to, which exhibited what was so conspicuously absent elsewhere ; 

 hence the writer of the memoir in question inferred that it was a true 

 Calamitean fruit. But though the evidence supporting this concKision 

 was strong, it was not sufficient to be absolutely demonstrative. It was 

 therefore extremely satisfactory when, during the past spring, our young 

 auxiliary, Mr. James Lomax, of RadcliQ", brought to us a nodule, col- 

 lected at Sunfield, Moorside, by Mr. Isaac Earnshaw, of Oldham, which 

 contained seven or eight specimens of the strobilus described in 1869. 

 The internal organisation of each of these new examples exhibits every 

 feature seen in the older specimen, whilst they collectively furnish 

 some new and important facts. Each of at least three of the strobili had 

 attached to its base a portion of the peduncle of which the axis of the 

 fruit was but a prolongation. In each case this peduncle is merely the 

 end of the slender twig of a Calamite, identical in every respect with those 

 of which we have obtained so many examples from the plant- bearing 

 nodules of the Gannister coals. It has long been contended by some 

 pal^obotanists that these Arthropitean Calamites were gymnospermous 

 plants. This interpretation has always been rejected by us. We have 

 always insisted that they were Equisetiform cryptogams, and our new 

 specimens demonstrate absolutely tbat such is the case. But the researches 

 of the last twenty years have compelled us to modify some long-accepted 

 notions. Under the title of the natural order Equisetaceje, we regarded 

 the living Equisetums as affording our standard type, by which all our 

 primteval forms had to be judged. Now, however, a more comprehensive 

 philosophy embraces both primaeval and living forms in the large and 

 varied group of the Galamarice, of which the living Equisetums are but 

 a degraded and somewha.t aberrant branch. 



We have obtained fresh information respecting the relations of Cordas, 

 genera Anachoropteris and Zygopteris. One of these genera must be 

 abandoned, their separation being no longer possible. We have also 

 obtained many additional examples of cellular bodies within the interiors 

 of tissues, cells as well as vessels, of various plants. Whether these are 

 examples of Tylose, of Fungi, or of commensal Algae is yet sub judice. We 

 must also repeat an observation made at Birmingham last year. We 

 possess many vegetable fragments which are known to ns too imperfectly 



