478 
PROFESS OK W. C. WILLIAMSON ON THE ORGANIZATION 
study of the Catamites of the Coal-measures, wide differences of opinion still exist 
respecting them amongst the highest authorities on the subject. Consequently I have 
availed myself of the valuable opportunities which the labours of Mr. J. Butterwortii, 
of Shaw, near Oldham, have brought within my reach to make a very extensive series 
of observations upon the plant. For this undertaking the materials have been so ample 
that I feel justified in speaking strongly upon some points that have hitherto been 
doubtful, and on which some of my fellow-labourers in the field of palseo-phytology 
entertain views different from my own. 
The questions at issue group themselves under several distinct heads : — 
1. Do all the well-known plants hitherto designated Catamites belong to one natural 
family, or are there two groups of these objects — the one Cryptogamic, represented by 
the true Catamites, and the other Phanerogamic, and represented by the Calamodendra 
of Brongniart \ 
2. Are there several genera divisible into numerous species, with well-marked internal 
characteristics, or are there but few specific types, each of which, though they are all 
constructed upon one common plan, exhibits a wide range of variability in the details 
of its internal organization 1 
3. What are the casts commonly known as Calamites ? and what parts of the plants 
do their varied superficial markings represent 1 
4. To what living plants are these fossil forms most closely related ? 
To all the above questions I think my materials suffice to give answers, though I 
would guard against the error of making the plants of the Lancashire Coal-measures, 
amongst which 1 have chiefly laboured, the representatives of all that may be found 
elsewhere, though the probabilities that we may so regard them are very strong. This 
lesson has been recently taught to such pliytologists as needed it, myself being one of 
the number, by the history of the Paleeozoic Conifera. The only true coniferous wood 
which I have seen in the Coal-measures of this country is the Sternbergian Dadoxylon, 
which I described some years ago in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of 
Manchester; and even in that example, as I have recently shown*, some of the 
characteristics of the highest Conifers are wanting. But in New Brunswick Dr. Dawsoa 
has found true coniferous woods in the greatest abundance, not only in the Carbon- 
iferous but in the Devonian beds — a fact which shows that even in studying the flora 
of that early age, when individual types were much more cosmopolitan than now, we 
require great caution in accepting those of one continent as evidences of what exist in 
another. 
In the volume recently published by the Paleeontographical Society f Mr. Binney has 
pointed out many of the more conspicuous features characterizing the Calamites of Lan- 
cashire. With some of his descriptions I cordially agree, but from others I have been 
obliged to differ, as will appear in the following pages. The plant has possessed three 
* Monthly Microscopical Journal, August 1869. 
t Observations on the Structure of the Fossil Plants found in the Carboniferous strata. 
