2 



CALAMITES RAMOSUS. 

 BRANCHED CALAM1TE. 



Generic Character. 

 Stem jointed, longitudinally striated ; impressions at the articulations usually 

 forming rings round the trunk. 



Specific Character. 

 CALAMITES ramosus. Stem arborescent, branched; branches cylindrical, 

 inserted at the articulations of the trunk, striated ; articulation of (he branches sur- 

 rounded by a striated disk. 



Synonyms. 

 This particular species has not been found mentioned in any work on the subject. 



Description and Locality. 



Stem (which has been found 9 feet in length) cylindrical, jointed, striated ; joints 

 longer than broad, articulations very distinct, branches slightly striated, inserted at 

 the articulation. 



Articulations of the branch hemispherically depressed, surrounded by a striated 

 circular disk. 



Found imbedded both horizontally and vertically, in sandstone, in Lea-brook 

 quarry, near Wentworth, from whence the specimen figured was taken, and where 

 it occurred only five feet from the surface. This plant has also been found in El-se-car 

 new colliery, of a great length, and on which the commencement of several branches 

 was evident; in this place the depth at which it is found is 250 feet 1 



Observations. 



M. Schlotheim, in his Petrefactenkunde, p. 400, No. 5 and 6, has mentioned two 

 very similar species. And the Count Sternberg has given a figure of another similar 

 species in his Essai d'un Expose geognostico-botanique de la Flore du Monde 

 primitif, part 2, plate 17, f. 2, under the name of calamites nodosus, in which the cir- 

 cular border round the socket receiving the branch is by no means so distinct, as 

 in the species here figured, although there can be scarcely any doubt but that the 

 Count's figure is that of an analogous .species. 



Dr. Martius has referred these arborescent plants to bambusia ; but M. 

 Adolphe Brongniart, in the Memoircs du Museum d'Histoire Naturclle, controverts 

 this opinion, and considers these fossil plants are referrable, rather to the equiseta, 

 than to the bambusia, and other arborescent grasses. 



