REPORT OF TEE CHIEF ASTRONOMER 805 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 25a 



external appearance of these remains at once suggests the structure of Calamites 

 radiatus of Heer, but there are two very substantial objections to considering 

 the existence of such a relationship, because (1) it has not been possible to 

 determine the presence of the characteristic joints of that species, although 

 certain lines of fracture due to longitudinal compression, have suggested to 

 some observers to whose attention they were directed, their identity with such 

 joints; and (2) Calamites radiatus is a Carboniferous type, with which it would 

 be impossible to correlate our present specimens, which are unquestionably of 

 more recent origin. There is, likewise, no point of comparison with Heer's 

 Caulinites, which is of Mesozoic age, nor with any of the various species o£ 

 Sabal, which have been described as occurring in the Cretaceous and Tertiary- 

 Under these circumstances, it seems altogether probable that the various ridges 

 are not original features of the organ, but that they have been produced by- 

 certain conditions of preservation, and that their regular occurrence at stated! 

 intervals is only an expression of the location of the principal nerves or veins. 

 On the basis of this interpretation we must conclude that these fragments 

 cannot be definitely separated from those representing Cyperacites haydenii, 

 with which they must therefore be regarded as identical. This conclusion also 



271 



gains strength from the circumstance that specimens z — - — -present intermediate 



1, 2, 3 



forms of such a character as to readily show how the one passes into the other 

 by varying conditions of preservation. 



250 271 250 



of 1903 and — — ( = — — of the previous report incorrectly given) . 



4, 10 3 x 3 



Cyperacites, sp. 



Various fragments of an endogenous leaf, which it has been customary to 

 refer to the genus Cyperacites without any specific designation, because the 

 details of form and structure are usually so altered as to make identification 

 impossible. No. 4, nevertheless, shows the details of the venation much more 

 perfectly than is commonly the case. The whole fragment is 1.5 cm. broad 

 and 8.2 cm. long. The very prominent and parallel venation is found to show 

 about 9 veins to the cm., but this is only approximate, since it is found that 

 owing to a collapse of the general structure, some veins are much nearer than 

 others. Their normal interval would seem to be about 1 mm. In specimens 



, precisely the same forms recur, and they must be held to fall under 



3a. & ba 



the same generic designation. 



Remains of this character are of very common occurrence throughout the 

 Tertiary, and Dawson (5) has even recorded under this name, a specimen 

 which he describes as ' A slender, grass-like stem with linear, finely striate 

 leaves, alternately disposed and not proceeding from enlarged joints.' In his 

 account of the Flora of the John Day Basin in Oregon, the horizon of which 3S 

 regarded as Upper Miocene, Knowlton (34) records the occurrence of a stem 



25a — vol. iii — 52J 



