43 
ON SOME RECENT ADVANCES IN BRITISH PALEOBOTANY. 
BY THOS. HICK, B.A., B.SC, A.L.S. 
Assistant Lecturer in Botany, Owens College, Manchester. 
( Received and Read November 13th, 1895.) 
In a paper read before this Society in 1891, I referred to the 
advantage of periodically taking stock of our possessions in matters 
of science, and gave an outline of what was then known of the struc- 
ture of the Yorkshire specimens of Catamites. On the present occa- 
sion I propose to repeat the process on a somewhat more extensive 
scale, and to give a summary account of some of the most notable 
additions which have been made to our knowledge of certain types of 
Carboniferous plants, since the former paper was written. I will 
begin with the genus Catamites. 
Calamites. 
Our knowledge of the organisation and structure of the plants 
referred to this genus has been so greatly extended during the last 
four years, that they may now be regarded as among the best known 
of the plants of the Coal Measures. To show this, it will be con- 
venient, as in the previous paper, to take the different members of 
the plant in the usual order, and point out in each case the nature 
ol the discoveries which have been made with respect to it. 
The Roots. — With reference to the roots of Calamites, I stated 
in 189 It that our knowledge of their structure, so far as our York- 
shire specimens were concerned, appeared to be a complete blank. It 
was noted, however, that M. Renault's researches had led him to the 
conclusion that the fossils known as Astromyelon were in reality the 
roots of Calamodendron and Arthropitys, which are forms of Calamites. 
But seeing that in the Yorkshire forms of Astromyelon, the chief 
characteristics of a root structure had not been made out, I deferred 
accepting this determination until evidence of their possessing such 
a structure was forthcoming. 
♦ Proc. of the Yorksh. Ged. and Polyt. Soc, vol. xii., pt. L, 1891. 
t Loc. cit., page 3. 
