CALAMODENDRON. 



had similar habitats, and therefore it is very probable that they might have had rootlets 

 resembling each other without being the same plant. Still, however, as Sigillaria was 

 so long considered as a separate plant from Stigtuaria, it is unphilosophical to take no 

 notice of the analogies of what are now considered distinct genera. Although it will not 

 by any means be safe to affirm that Sigillaria and Catamites are the same plant, from 

 their analogies, still it is conceived that sufficient evidence has been adduced in this paper 

 to prove that the latter as well as the former plants have generally grown on the places 

 where they are now found, and that the reason why one is so much more frequently 

 found in an erect position than the other arises from the circumstance of the stem of 

 the one being much stronger than that of the other. A deposit of mud on the branches 

 and leaves of a slender stem of a Catamites might weigh it down and prostrate it, whilst 

 the stout trunk of the SigiUaria would resist such action and continue erect." 



As the specimens near Wigan showed the best roots of Catamites found standing as 

 they grew that ever came under my observation, I herewith 

 give in the annexed woodcut (fig. 1) a drawing (reduced 

 one eighth the natural size) made on the spot by my friend 

 the late M. Jobert. 



§ 4. Dr. C. von Ettingshausen, in 1855, published a 

 most elaborate memoir on Catamites} and showed the state 

 of our knowledge at that time of the plant so far as its fruit, 

 branches, and stem were concerned. This author greatly 

 simplified the matter by classing twenty-three species of 

 stems under Catamites communis, and subsequent investi- 

 gations have, in great measure, if not entirely, confirmed his 

 views ; but he gives us little information on the structure 

 of the plant, his specimens having been apparently only 

 casts. 



Fig. 1. 



§ 5. Dr. Ludwig has given to the world a very lucid description, illustrated by most 

 beautiful plates, of what he considers to be the fructification of Catamites} His speci- 

 mens are in a remarkable state of preservation, and are found associated (but not connected) 

 with a small stem resembling a Catamites ; this stem, however, scarcely reminds us of the 

 plant as commonly known by that name and so plentifully found in our Coal-measures. 

 The genus Catamites has, no doubt, been made to include several plants of very different 

 structures, having external resemblance to each other in some of their characters, and 

 Ludwig's specimen must be taken as the fructification of one of them. 



' ' Abhandlungen der Kaiserlicb-Koniglichen Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Jahrgang,' 18.55. Vienna. 

 ^ " Calamiten-Frlichte aus dem Spatheisenstein von Hattingen an der Ruhr," von Rudolph Ludwig; 

 ' Dunker und von Meyer's Pala:ontographica,' vol. x, 1861 to 1863. 



