248 PROF. W. C. WILLIAMSON ON A NEW FORM 



XIX. On a new Form of CaJamitean Strohilus from the 

 Lancashire Coal-measures. By W. C. Williamson, 

 F.R.S., Professor of Natural History in Owens College, 

 Manchester. 



Eead October 19th, 1869. 



In the last communication which I had the privilege of 

 laying before this Society, I mentioned that I had found, 

 in the collection of Mr. Butter worth, of High Crompton, 

 portions of a fossil strobilus from the Lancashire Coal- 

 measures, which exhibited some remarkable features, and 

 which I believed had not improbably belonged to the Cala- 

 mopitus that I was then describing. Since that comunica- 

 tion was made, Mr. Butterworth has kindly prepared for 

 me some additional sections of the specimen ; and having 

 subjected the whole of them to a careful examination, I 

 now beg to communicate the results to the Society. When 

 the specimen came into the possession of Mr. Butterworth, 

 it consisted of but three oblate joints or segments of what 

 had once been a larger structure. In its general aspect 

 it appears to have closely resembled, if it was not identical 

 with, one which Mr. Binney figured"^ and referred to as re- 

 sembling the AphTjllostachys jugleriana of Goeppert. Mr. 

 Binney describes his strobilus as being about half an inch in 

 length, and consisting of eight or nine crown-shaped masses 

 or joints, each of which, calculating the proportions indicated 

 by Mr. Binney's figures, must have been about the -^-^ of 

 an inch in length, and from -^-^ to \ in transverse diameter. 

 Mr. B utter worth^s strobilus has considerably exceeded 

 these dimensions. The specimen is somewhat compressed 

 laterally ; hence its transverse section presents an oval 

 figure. The length of each joint, or internode, supporting 

 one verticil of sporangia is about J inch, its greater dia- 



* " Observations on the Structure of Fossil Plants found in the Carboni- 

 ferous strata. By E. W. Binney, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. Part I. Calamites 

 nnd Calamoder.dron" (Pahrontographical Society, 1868), Plate vi. fig. i. 



