OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE COAL-MEASUEES. 
Such a fruit is but one of these twigs whose development has been arrested. Now we 
have seen from figs. 1, 2, and 18 that, in such twigs of Aster ophyllites, the vascular 
bundle has essentially the same triangular form as in the fruit. Then, in addition to 
these important positive evidences, we have equally important negative ones. A vas- 
cular bundle of a triangular form, and having truncated angles, is a rare phenomenon, 
whether in a strobilus or in a true branch — a phenomenon of which no trace exists in 
the Oldham beds, save in Asterophyllites and, as Professor Renault appears to have 
discovered, in the allied genus Sphenophyllum. When, therefore, we find, in a stratum 
scarcely exceeding a foot in thickness, a fruit possessing such an axis associated with 
a verticillate arrangement of foliar appendages, and we also find, in the same bed, 
numerous stems of Asterophyllites having a similar primary axis, also associated with a 
verticillate foliage, we have every possible reason for concluding that the two objects 
are parts of the same plant ; and when, after prolonged and careful search, we fail to 
find, either in this or in any other part of the Coal-measures, any other plant possessing 
such a triangular axis, we have as near an approximation to certainty as we can ever 
hope to attain in these fossils, short of finding the two growing upon the same stem. 
This has not yet been done in the case of specimens of which the minute organization 
is preserved; but we do find specimens so associated which exhibit every outward 
appearance of identity with that of which I have described the internal structure. 
In two of his memoirs already referred to, Mr. Binney published figures of fruits of 
Asterophyllites from Brooksbottom in Lancashire, where a rich deposit of these curious 
organisms was discovered in a thin bed of shale by my friend Captain John Aitken, of 
Bacup. Captain Aitken has kindly favoured me with an abundant supply of these inter- 
esting specimens, thus enabling me to subject these fruits to a very careful investigation. 
In my memoir on Vollcmannia Dawsoni, as also in that on the organization of Catamites, 
I expressed my belief that Mr. Binney’ s figures of these specimens represented Calamitean 
fruits ; but, after studying the specimens themselves, I am satisfied that such is not the 
case. I believe them to be of the same type as Volkmannia Dawsoni. In the Cala- 
mitean strobilus which I described the free ends of the bracts are closely pressed against * 
the sporangia, whilst in the Volkmannia Dawsoni, on the other hand, they project 
considerably beyond the sporangia. A similar projection appears in Captain Aitken’s 
specimens, as shown in Plate Y. fig. 31, which represents one of the finest of these fruits 
enlarged to twice its natural size. They are found attached to stems and branches which 
are undoubtedly Aster ophyllitean ; and, as Mr. Binney has correctly pointed out, some of 
them were terminal, whilst others were arranged in successive verticils springing laterally 
from the axils of leaves, where they appear to have been sessile. There is no doubt that 
in this fruit every node sustained its layer of sporangia, instead of their being developed 
on alternate nodes, as in the Calamostachys Dinneyana. 
Plate Y. fig. 32 represents a fine specimen of the fruit of another species of 
Asterophyllites. I know that the specimen was obtained from one of the shales of the 
Coal-measures near Manchester, though I am not certain as to the exact locality. The 
mdccclxxiv. i 
