544 Ludwig— On Calamite-fruits. 
is considered, and an examination of the casts themselves affords no 
support whatever to this conclusion. Again, they have been regarded 
as the trail of a crustacean, but the absence of a central track, and 
the varying relations of the different groups, seem to preclude this 
explanation, though the fact that a great proportion of the casts are 
sunk in the matrix obliquely to the plane of the rock, appearsin favour 
of it. But the hypothesis, that they are footprints of some unknown 
reptile, although it has found but little favour amongst geologists, 
harmonises in Mr. Grindley’s opinion with the facts of the case 
better than any other yet proposed, and he thinks no sound ob- 
jection has as yet been advanced against it. The idea of a creature 
of vast size prowling along the margin of the shore in search of 
food agrees in every respect with the trails, the difference in the 
size of the two pairs of casts composing the group of four, may be 
the result of a difference in the size of the hind and fore feet. The 
variation in the impressions would indicate a troop of animals of 
different ages and sizes. 
In conclusion, the author stated that, though he was certainly of 
opinion that the markings were of reptilian origin, yet he was by no 
means unwilling to adopt any more reasonable explanation. 
ABSTRACTS OF FOREIGN MEMOIRS. 
——-++—__ 
J. On CALAMITE-FRUITS FROM THE SPATHIC JRON-ORE NEAR 
HaAtTtriGEN ON THE RunrR. By Rupotrs Lupwic, 
(CALAMITEN-FRUCHTE AUS DEM SPATHEISENSTEIN BEI HaTTicEN AN DEM Ruar. 
Von Rupoxrex Lupwic. Paleontographica, vol. x. pp. 11-16. Pl. 2.) 
apes fossil which formed the subject of this memoir was obtained 
from a bed of spathic iron-ore occurring near Hattigen on 
the Ruhr, and had already been referred by Dr. Lottner* (who sent 
it to the author for examination) to the genus Cyathocrinus. Dr. 
Ludwig, however, determined that it was referable to the vegetable 
kingdom, and consisted of the fructifying spikes of a species of 
Calamite; he gives the following description of it:—the fossil 
consists of shortly stalked fruit-spikes lying in a whorl round the 
stem, having a cylindrical form, contracted above and below. The 
spikes are about seven centimétres in length and one in thickness ; 
they consist of a number of closely packed, broad, short, and sharply 
pointed bracts arranged in a coronal manner upon circular, radially 
ribbed discs, attached to the hollow jointed stalk, so that as many as 
fifteen bracts form together a crown-like body, whose teeth exactly 
touch the middle rib of the bracts above. In this manner as many 
as from 20 to 25 cylindrical chambers, superimposed on one an- 
other are formed along the central column; they are imperfectly 
closed at the exterior margin, and each one contains five bunches of 
spore-capsules attached to the central stalk. The arrangement and 
* Geognost. Skizze des Westphalischen Steinkohlengebirges. 1859, p. 154. 
