60 STUDIES IN FOSSIL BOTANY 



to the bracts, which are here twice as numerous as the 

 main bundles. According to Renault the strands 

 supplying the sporangiophores also spring from the 

 bract-node, pass up through a considerable part of the 

 internode above, and then bend downwards and outwards 

 to enter the sporangiophores. (Cf. Fig. 27 from 

 Palaeostachya). 



The morphology of the cone is in all respects that 

 of a Calamostachys. There are the usual alternate 

 whorls of bracts and sporangiophores, and the bracts in 

 each whorl are twice as numerous as the sporangio- 

 phores. As in C. Binneyana, the bracts are connate in 

 their lower portion, forming a continuous horizontal disc. 

 The sporangiophores are of peltate form, and each bears 

 four sporangia, exactly as in the species above de- 

 scribed. Thirty-six bracts and eighteen sporangiophores 

 were counted in their respective verticils. 



I must add that some of the Continental species of 

 Calamostachys (including C. Grand'Euryi) present a 

 complication not found in the English species above 

 described ; this peculiarity consists in the presence of 

 radiating vertical wings of tissue connecting each 

 peltate scale with the whorl of bracts just above it. 

 There was thus a membrane connecting the upper 

 edges of the sporangiophores with the lower side of the 

 bracts ; in some cases a similar but less complete 

 membranealso extended downwards from, each sporangio- 

 phore. The sporangia thus lay in groups of four in the 

 compartments formed by these radial plates of tissue. 

 We have here one example among many of the 

 complexity of the Palaeozoic Cryptogams, as compared 

 with those of the present day. 



