EQUISETALES— CALAMARIEiE— ASTEEOPHYLLITES. 153 



There are in the collections but a few fragments referable to this 

 species, which must have been relatively rare in this region at the time of 

 the deposition of the lower coals. Two or tlu-ee of the fragments are, by 

 the marked obliquity of the very narrow leaves, the short nodes, and the 

 general delicacy of form, closely related to Asterophyllites eredifoUus Audi-. 

 This phase of A. equisetiformis is not rare in the Appalachian Basin, where 

 it is found near the base of the Productive Coal Measures, or Alleghany 

 series. The leaves on a branch 2 mm. wide are more than tlii-ee times the 

 length of the internode, which is about 4 mm. 



From the habit of some of the larger stems I am strongly inclined to 

 believe that some of the segments of large stems referred by authors to 

 ' A. longifoUus or A. rigidus may be merely portions of the main stems or 

 principal branches of A. equisetiformis. 



The Lacoe collection in the United States National Museum contains a 

 fine example (No. 7689) of the latter species from Cannelton, Pennsylvania, 

 in which we see a stem segment 43 cm. long, 1 7 mm. wide at the lower end, 

 and 10 mm. wide at the top, provided with 14 verticils of branches. Four, 

 and sometimes five, branches, the longest of which is not over 12 cm., can 

 be seen at nearly every node. The surface is nearly smooth, being only 

 minutely lineate where decorticated, and is much smoother where the car- 

 bonaceous material remains intact. It is worthy of mention that, notwith- 

 standing the size of the stem, the leaves on the latter are not over 1.5 cm. 

 in length. In this respect it differs much from certain specimens from 

 Mazon Creek ascribed by Professor Lesquereux to this species, as well as 

 from that figured under the same name by Von Roelil.^ 



It is possible that the distinctions between the different species of 

 Asterojihyllites have not in numerous cases been consistently established or 

 followed. 



Localities. — Grilkerson's Ford; Owen's coal bank, U. S. Nat. Mus., 5423. 



ASTEEOPHYLLITES LONGIFOLIUS (Stb.) BrongU. 



PI. XLIX, Figs. 2-4. 



1825. Brukniannia longifoUa Sternberg, Yersuch, vol. i, tent., p. xxix, fasc. 4, pi. Iviii, 



fig.l. 

 1828. AsterophylUtes longifoUus (Stb.) Bronguiart, Prodrome, p. 159. 



' Fobs. Fl. Steinkohlenf. Westphalens, pi. iii, fin-. 5. 



