PERMIAN FOSSILS. 



Sub-class Calamitales, King. 



It is proposed to adopt provisionally a new group in which to include the extinct 

 genus Calamifes, which, from its histology and general aspect, does not appear to 

 belong to any yet established. From what is known of the genus just named, the 

 sub-class Calamitales may be characterised as consisting of plants having jointed stems 

 and branches, with a distinct pith, surrounded by a ligneous (or ligneo-vascular) zone, 

 which is intersected by medullary rays, and composed of striated vessels or tubes arranged 

 in radiating series. Considering the histological character just given, this group may, 

 with some propriety, be separated from the class Acrogena, and placed among the 

 Dicotyledons, as originally suggested by Dr. Lindley.^ 



Genus Catamites, Suckow. 



Diagnosis. — " Stems jointed, regularly and closely furrowed, hollow, divided in- 

 ternally at the articulations by" a transverse diaphragm, covered with a thick cortical 

 integument. ( ? Leaves verticHlate, very narrow, numerous, and simple.)"^ 



It is necessary to mention that the above diagnosis is incorrect so far as relates 

 to the stems being "hollow." From specimens in iron-stone nodules found in the 

 collieries of St. Berain and St. Leger, M. Ad. Brongniart has arrived at the conclusion 

 that the fossils termed Calamitea by Cotta, are in reality Calamites with the tissues 

 mineralized.^ Mr. Dawes has also been fortunate in the discovery of specimens 

 leading to the same conclusion.* 



Calamites (?) 



Calamites, King. Catalogue, p. 5, 1848. 



— Howse. T. N. F. C. vol. i, p. 264, 1848. 



A specimen resembling Calamites Mougeotii, now in the Newcastle Museum, was 

 some years since found in the Lower New Red Sandstone Uuarry, between Westoe 

 and South Shields. 



' Fossil Flora, vol. i, p. 53. 

 2 Idem, vol. i. 



^ "Observations sur la Structure interieure du Sigillaria elegans," &c., in Archives du Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle, tome i. 



'' The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. v, p. 31, 1848, 



