CLASSIFICATION OF CALAMARIEAE 



75 



tunities of observing the fossils in situ. Grand'Eury 1 

 distinguishes three great groups, represented respectively 

 by Annularia, Catamites proper, and Calamodendron. 

 The first group, Annularia (Fig. 33), is characterised 

 by whorled leaves, usually more or less lanceolate in 

 shape, attached to a stem of Calamitean structure, 

 which is said to have attained only a small diameter, 

 not exceeding 2 or 3 

 inches in the forms 

 described. The struc- 

 ture of the finer 

 branches is very deli- 

 cate, and the plants 

 have been supposed 

 to be herbaceous 

 aquatics. There is, 

 however, very little 

 evidence for this, and 

 there is reason to 

 believe that some 

 at least of the An- 

 nulariae, as, for 

 example, A. stellata, 

 were simply the 



branches of large Calamites. It has lately been shown 

 that in this latter form the leaves were united at the 

 base, to form a regular sheath, as in the recent Equiseta 2 

 (cp. Fig. 1 2, p. 38). The fructifications of the Annulariae 

 are called by Grand'Eury and Renault Bruckmannia ; 



Fig. 33. — Annularia brervi/olia. Twigs, bearing 

 whorled leaves. Nat. size. After Stur. 



1 Bassin houiller du Gard, St. Etienne, 1890, p. 200. 



2 See Eotonie\ "Aeusserer Bau der Blatter von Annularia stellata?' 

 etc., Verhandl. bot. Ver. d. Prov. Brandenburg, Bel. xxxiv. 



