﻿NOTE BY MR. W. CARRUTHERS. 



1G9 



Fi&. 57. — Hippurites gigantea, Lindl. 



Coal-measures, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



(Lindl. & Hutt., pi. 114, i nat. size.) 



Lindley and Hutton met with a less perfect fragment, showing four of the large 

 round scars (' Fossil Flora,' pi. cxxx) ; unable to determine anything as to the affinities 

 of this fossil, they were satisfied with attaching to it a new generic name — Cyclocladia — 

 and leaving their successors to throw some light on it when better materials should turn up. 



They had, however, already published the portion of 

 a stem with leaves belonging to the same plant under 

 the name of Hippurites gigantea (' Fossil Flora,' pi. cxiv). 

 This represents parts of three joints, two of them very 

 obscure, from the way in which the specimen was 

 broken, and the broken pieces pressed upon each other 

 in the bed in which they were preserved. The sur- 

 face of the stem, Lindley says, is in some places 

 perfectly smooth, without the slightest trace of furrows 

 or scars, but in other places it presents the appearance 

 of transverse wrinkles. These transverse markings are 

 shown on the lower joint (Fig. 57), and are obviously the 

 same as the short, wavy, interrupted ridges lying trans- 

 versely to the length, described and figured by Mr. 

 Salter. The leaves occupy their natural position ; they 

 are acicular, somewhat dilated downwards, and united at the base, but not so as to form a 

 sheath. There are indications of a central rib to the leaf. In a second species from the 

 Forest of Dean {H. longifolia, Lindl. and Hutt., 'Fossil 

 Flora/ pi. cxc) the long leaves are more obviously free to 

 the very base. 



Germar has figured a larger specimen under the name 

 of Catamites varians, Sternb. (' Steinkohlen v. Wettin und 

 Lobejun,' p. 47, pi. xx, fig. 1), in which the scars of the 

 leaves and of the axillary appendages are shown on the same 

 specimen, as well as the furrowed structure of the interior so 

 characteristic of Calamitean stems. (See Woodcut, Fig. 58.) 



The very thin layer of coal which here represents the 

 cylinder of the hollow stem, shows that this cylinder 

 was very slender. This is obvious also from the cracks 

 in Fig. 56, and the scarcely increased thickness from 

 the overlying portions of the upper joint of Fig. 57. 

 The perfectly smooth outer surface of the stem is also 

 well shown in this specimen. The slender nature of 

 the stem and the delicate transverse wrinkles resulting 

 from this are very well shown by Ettingshausen in his 

 memoir on Catamites {' Sitzungsbericht d. raath.-natur. Class, d. K. Akad. Wissensch.,' 



24 



Fig. 58. — Catamites varians. Sternb. 

 Coal-measures. 

 (Germar, 1. c, pi. xx, fig. 1, i nat. size.) 



