(eo) 
PERMIAN FOSSILS. 
Sub-class CALAMITALES, King. 
It is proposed to adopt provisionally a new group in which to include the extinct 
genus Calamites, 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 
. inradiating series. Considering the histological character just given, this group may, 
with some propriety, be separated from the class Acrogene, and placed among the 
Dicotyledons, as originally suggested by Dr. Lindley." 
Genus Calamites, 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 verticillate, 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 (7) 
Catamites, King. Catalogue, p. 5, 1848. 
_— Howse. T. N. F. C. vol. i, p. 264, 1848. 
A specimen resembling Calamites Mougeotu, now in the Newcastle Museum, was 
some years since found in the Lower New Red Sandstone Quarry, between Westoe 
and South Shields. 
! Fossil Flora, vol. i, p. 53. 
2 Tdem, vol. i. 
3 «Observations sur la Structure interieure du Sigillaria elegans,” &c., in Archives du Muséum 
d’ Histoire Naturelle, tome 1. 
4 The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. v, p. 31, 1848. 
