CALAMOPITYEAE 477 



appear to justify a separate family-name. 1 Several 

 species, of Lower Carboniferous and Devonian age, are 

 known, all of which are at present referred to the 

 genus Calamopitys of Unger. The generic name is 

 unfortunate, as it suggests an affinity with Calamites, 

 with which, as all recent investigations have shown, the 

 genus has nothing whatever to do, while the relationship 

 to Lyginodendron is clear. 



The species of which we have the most complete 

 knowledge is Calamopitys Saturni, Unger, from Saalfeld 

 in Central Germany ; Count Solms-Laubach, to whom 

 we owe a full account of its anatomy, 2 now regards the 

 horizon as Devonian, 3 and not, as was previously 

 believed, Lower Carboniferous. 



Only three or four fragmentary specimens are 

 known, the largest of which is about 1.5 cm. in diameter 

 (see Fig. 176). 



The stem has a small pith (1 to 2 mm. in diameter) 

 surrounded by the primary wood, which consists of 

 about half a dozen bundles, apparently somewhat 

 confluent with each other laterally. 4 In the middle of 

 each xylem-strand is a group of small elements, no 

 doubt constituting the protoxylem. The primary strands 

 of xylem abut more or less immediately on the sur- 

 rounding zone of secondary wood, the elements of 



1 In this I now follow Count Solms-Laubach. In the previous edition 

 Calamopitys was included under Lyginodendreae. 



2 " Pflanzenreste des Unterculm von Saalfeld." Abhandl. der k. preuss. 

 geol. Landesanstalt, neue Folge, Heft 23, p. 63, 1896. A true Calamite, 

 now known as Arlhrodendron, was described by Williamson under the 

 same name, Calamopitys ; see Chapter II. p. 34. 



3 " Die Bedeutung der Palaophytologie fiir die systematische Botanik," 

 Mitt, der philomath. Gesettsch. in Elsass-Lothringen, Bd. iii. 1906. 



4 A doubtfully distinct species, C. annularis, differs in the larger pith 

 (7 mm. ) and the more confluent xylem-strands. 



