Maslen. — The Relation of Root to Stem in Catamites . 63 
More recently, and after an examination of some of the sections 
described later in this paper, and of Renault’s specimens in Paris, Jeffrey 
contradicted his previous statements and declared that : * It is apparent from 
these recent observations that there is no necessary relation between the 
presence of roots and the occurrence of infra-nodal tubercles/ and that 
the roots were not attached to them although they were present in 
abundance in the same specimens b He thus comes to a conclusion which 
was long ago arrived at by Williamson. Detailed examination of the 
large series of slides on which the present paper is based, many of them 
showing infra-nodal organs and roots in the same slide, confirms William- 
son’s conclusion that there is no connexion between these two sets of 
organs. The infra-nodal organs are always distinctly below the nodes 
and pass right through to the pith of the stem : the adventitious roots 
are inserted about on a level with the nodes (i. e. the level of the leaf-traces), 
and can also be traced right through to their connexion with the primary 
xylem of the stem. At no point in their course are the two sets of organs 
connected with one another. Indeed, the functions and homology of the 
infra-nodal organs remain as great a mystery as ever. 
The principal object of the present paper is to describe and illustrate 
some recently obtained specimens and sections of the basal part of the 
stem of Catamites in which the connexion with the roots is clearly shown. 
Renault has already figured specimens with Astromyelon structures on 
Calamitean stems, and has shown that similar appendages were borne on 
the stems of the sub-genera Bornia ( Archaeocalamites ) and Calamodendron 2 , 
as well as on those of Arthropitys (Goppert), the form to which most of 
the petrified Calamitean stems in the British Coal-Measures may be referred. 
Specimens showing the connexion between stem and root, and also ex- 
hibiting structure, are rare in our British collections of fossil plants. 
Williamson and Scott in their memoir on ‘ The Roots of Calamites 3 ’ 
only instance one example in the Williamson Collection, and Seward in 
his textbook 4 figures one other example from a section in the Cambridge 
Botanical Laboratory Collection. 
The reason for the paucity of such sections is doubtless to be found 
in the fact that all the largest roots, as far as is at present known, 
were adventitious and only occurred at the base of the main aerial stems 
and on the underground rhizomes, while most of the fragments of 
Calamitean stems which are found represent portions of the axis above 
the root region. 
All the sections have been skilfully prepared by Mr. James Lomax 
of Bolton, and all were in the possession of Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., 
1 Annals of Botany, vol. xv, 1901, pp. 139- 140. 
2 Loc. cit., Flore fossile d’Autun, Part II (Atlas), Plates XLIII and LIX. 
3 Loc. cit., p. 685. 4 Fossil Plants, vol. i, Fig. 92, p. 347. 
