44 CATALOGUE OF FOSSIL PLANTS 



the top and two branches had sprung from the broken part and 

 took the form of stems, but as the parent stem has much finer 

 ribs it is probably the terminal part of a rootstock which has 

 thrown out two stems. !No. 41 is figured in the F. F., pi. 78, 

 and shews both roots and rootlets attached to several small 

 stems. 



Bechera grandis, F. F., pi. 173 (Nos. 42 and 43) represent 

 small branches and foliage of C. SucTcowii. Bechera grandis, 

 pi. 19, f. 1, of the same author is the stem of Sphenophyllum 

 cuneifolium. 



The specimens Nos. 44-52 represent the fertile spikes or fruc- 

 tification of S. Suckowii. It is difficult to understand why the 

 authors of the F. F. referred this fructification to Schlotheim's 

 uncharacterized C. nodosus and not to Sternberg's VolTcmannia 

 polystachia. The little, perhaps accidental, swelling at the base 

 of the branch seems to be the character they have referred to, 

 but the fine display of fertile spikes preserved on these speci- 

 mens are the most interesting organisms. There can be no doubt 

 that these spikes are identical with Sternberg's Volhmannia poly- 

 stachia, and that they are the fructification of C. SucTcowii. 



The large branching stem, F. F., pi. 15, belongs, I think, to C. 

 Suckowii, but there is no proof that the fertile branch lying near 

 it was attached to the stem or belonged to it orgauically. It is 

 possible that Calamites, like some of the recent Equiseta, had 

 fertile stems, but of this at present we have no proof ; but the 

 fructification seems to have formed large panicles of branches 

 surrounded with whorls of fertile spikes. The upper part of the 

 stem of C. SucTcoicii, and also the stem of C. cannceformis, has 

 been furnished, when the branching began with two branches 

 opposite to each other on one joint, and the branches arranged 

 crosswise on alternate nodes. This branching part is the C. 

 ramosus of authors, and is not a true species, some of the speci- 

 mens belonging to this and others to the following species. 



The C. cruciatus, Sternberg, is probably the rootstock of C. 

 Suchowii, at least, the specimen (No. 39) referred to above proves 

 that the stem of C. SucTcowii is organically connected with C. 

 cruciatus as its rootstock. It is much to be regretted that the 



