﻿170 



BRITISH FOSSIL CRUSTACEA. 



vol. ix, pi. ii, fig. 1) ; and the tear-drop ornamentation is represented in the figure on 



pi. i, fig. i. 



Geinitz, in his beautiful work ' On the Coal Formation in Saxony,' has added con- 

 siderably to our knowledge of this set of Equisetacean 

 stems. He figures a portion consisting of several joints, 

 two of which are furnished with verticils of large scars, 

 and a larger and more slender specimen with many joints 

 (a portion of which is reproduced, Fig. 60) shows the 

 position of the two sets of scars as in Steinhauer's speci- 

 men, as well as the ridges of the inner surface. The 

 aspect of the larger upper whorl of scars in Fig. 59, and the 

 character of the furrowing of the medullarv cavitv shown 



FIG-. 59. — Aquisetites infundibuliforniis, ° " •> 



Bronn, Coal-measures, Zwickau. j n Ym. 58 from Germar, seem to justify Geinitz in referring 



(Geinitz, ' Steink. in Sachsen,' pi. x, f . 4, ° . 



1 nat. size.) to this plant the Catamites verticittatus, Lindl. and Hutt., 



' Fossil Flora,' pi. cxxxix. That these scars may have been produced by the cones, as held 



by Geinitz, I cannot doubt, but the specimen of Hippurites longi- 

 folia, Lindl. and Hutt., figured in ' Fossil Flora,' pi. cxc, shows that 

 they were produced also by the ordinary leaf-bearing branches. The 

 drawing of Asteropliyttites grandis, Lindl. and Hutt., 'Fossil Flora,' 

 pi. xvii, further corroborates this view. 



Geinitz also figures the leaves, which agree in their general 

 character with those of Hippurites gigantea, Lindl. and Hutt. 

 Geinitz correlates with this plant a large cylindrical fruit, with a 

 short, thick, and slightly curved base ; and he believes that the larger 

 scars are the impressions of the articulations of these cones. One of these scars is shown 

 on fig. 6 of Salter's illustrations. 1 Schimper does not think it possible that this fruit, his 



Macrostachya infundibutiforinis, can belong to Geinitz's plant, but I 

 see no reason for doubting it. The Calamitean plants of the Coal- 

 measures are so fragmentary that it is very difficult to correlate the 

 different parts ; and this difficulty is vastly increased from the 

 immense numbers of worthless " species " that exist, based, in the 

 infancy of our knowledge, on characters then supposed to be im- 

 portant, but which are now known to be of no value. Nevertheless 

 these very characters are, up to the present time, being employed to 

 burthen our pages with synonyms. Schimper reduces the whole 

 of the true Calamites to seven satisfactory and nine unsatisfactory 

 species. I would not hesitate to go yet a little further with Ettingshausen, though perhaps 

 his wholesale demolition of supposed species is somewhat too thorough ; and I cannot, at 

 any rate, defend his placing the plant we are now dealing with among the crowd which 



1 See Woodcut, Fig. 54, 6, p. 164 ; also the accompanying PI. XXIV, fig. 4. 



Fig. 60. — JEquisetites in- 

 fiindibuliformis, Bronn, 

 part of stem with ver- 

 ticils of leaf -scars, Coal- 

 measures Zwickau. 



(Geinitz, op. cit., pi. x, f. 

 5 in part, -g nat. size. 



Fig. 61. — Foliage of Hgui- 

 setitesinfundibulif ormis, 

 Bronn. Coal-measures, 

 Zwickau. 



(Geinitz, op. cit., pi. x, f. 8 

 in part, | nat. size.) 



