OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE COAL-MEASURES. 
331 
casts of both the stem and branch of fig. 30 were once enclosed within a thick woody 
zone, but which has disappeared during mineralization, is amply confirmed, and that 
when, in our imaginary restorations of the mature Catamite, we give to it a straight 
substantial stem with verticils of extremely slender twigs we make a mistake. That 
such was the case with very young stems is more than probable ; but my specimens 
seem to show that many of the twigs of each verticil were arrested at an early stage of 
their development, whilst the few that were not so arrested did not differ materially in 
their external appearance from the branches of an ordinary Pinus. 
I presume that these facts will, at the first glance, give seeming support to those 
who still believe in a group of gymnospermous Calamoden dra, but I cannot accept this 
inference. 
It is to me a surprising fact that there can be palaeo-botanists who still believe in 
the existence of Equisetaceous Calamites apart from gymnospermous Calamodendra. 
Oldham, Halifax, and Autun, have now supplied immense numbers of stems of all 
sizes, from the delicate shoot represented in my figure 8, to the large arborescent stem 
shown in figs. 14 and 15. How is it that we nowhere find a solitary fragment which 
can be identified with the Calamites of Brongniart and M. Grand-’Eury ? Even the 
latter author is obliged to admit : “II est au moins surprenant qu’on n’ait pas mit le 
main sur un Calamite avec la structure conservee.” There can have been nothing in 
the structure of an Equisetaceous plant to prevent its conservation equally with the 
delicate rootlets of the Stigmarise which are so abundant in our carboniferous nodules. 
The supposed Calamites have been too abundant for the absence of the required 
specimens to be explained on the ground of rarity ; yet where are they ? I marvel 
that this fact alone does not satisfy my friendly opponents on this question, that 
Calamites and Calamodendra are identical plants. Bat this is not all ; M. Grand- 
’Eury speaking of Calamodendra further admits : “ Le b°is est forme par l’alternance 
cles lames rayonnantes de tissus differents, can ere le par suite de cette composition, 
articule par barret et le croissement des lames aux articulations, qui, etant en outre 
accompagnees de cicatrices rameales, donnent lieu, sur le surface, d une veritable forme 
de Calamite .” The italics of the last noteworthy observation are mine. The state- 
ment thus emphasised is not only true, but even more thoroughly so than the above 
sentence indicates. In addition to the perfect identity, in the two cases, of the arrange- 
ment of the vertical lines of alternating vascular and cellular laminae, and their change 
of relative position at each node, there are yet further resemblances to be noted. We 
have seen that at the nodes of my plants, which M. Brongniart regarded, and 
M. Grand-’Eury still regards, as Calamodendra, there exists the two verticils of 
lenticular areas seen in fig. 24, and one of which verticils we have further found to be 
identical in position and origin with the infranodal canals represented by the elongated 
* ‘ Flore Carbonifere du Departement de la Loire et du centre de la France,’ par F. Cyrille Grand-’Eury. 
Memoires presentees par divers savants a 1’ Academic des Sciences de l’lnstitut de France, 1877. Premiere 
partie, Botanique, p. 30. 
