OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE COAL-MEASURES. 
299 
by the specimen from the Halifax beds represented in fig. 24, and for which I am 
indebted to Mr. J. Aitken. It is a slightly oblique and longitudinal section. Hence 
the sporangia of the upper part have been cut through, almost tangentially, on one 
side of the vascular axis, whilst the lower ones have been similarly intersected on the 
other. 
Nothing further need be said of the general organization of the plant than that the 
barren disks with their bracts are seen at t, t', whilst the sporangiophores of the fertile 
verticils are variously intersected at v. The importance of the specimen resides in its 
spores. All the sporangia of the uppermost of the three fertile verticils, as well as 
those to the right of the middle one, v, are filled with the small spores which have 
now been so often figured and described. The three to the left of the middle verticil, 
and all the four of the lowermost one, u, contain macrospores. The relative sizes of 
these two classes of spores are shown in figs. 25 and 26, which are enlarged 220 
diameters. The microspores are about '0031, and macrospores occur as large as '01, 
most of them equalling '0093. The latter exhibit an outer sporangial wall, a, as well 
as an inner one, b, whilst a dark-coloured mass, c, exists in the centre of most of the 
examples. The outer wall of fig. 26 has not been intersected on both its surfaces on 
the plane of its maximum diameter ; hence it appears thicker in the figure than it is 
in reality. 
It is scarcely necessary to say that this discovery of macrospores and miscrospores in 
Calamostachys Binneyana supplies another link connecting this strobilus with the Lyco- 
podicicece in the same measure that it separates the fruit from the Equisetacece. That 
no plant belonging to the latter order ever possessed both macrospores and microspores 
is more than we can venture to affirm; but that no living representative of the group 
is known to do so is an unquestionable fact—hence to include an heterosporous 
Calamostachys in the Equisetaceous order will involve so large an alteration in the 
definition of the characteristics of this order as would practically involve the creation 
of a new one. On the other hand, this discovery strengthens my old conviction that 
the true affinities of this strobilus are with the Lycopodiacece. The verticillate arrange¬ 
ments of the fruit, and of what I believe to be the leaves of this plant ( Asterophyllites 
or Sphenophyllum) constitute no difficulty preventing us from accepting this con¬ 
clusion. Brongniart long ago pointed out how commonly a verticillate foliage 
occurred amongst living Lycopocls.* Fig. 27 represents the best specimen 1 have seen 
of a section which has passed tangentially through the margins of three of the 
horizontal barren disks, t, and revealed the form of the bracts, t', which ascend from 
each of these margins. The specimen is in Mr. Aitken’s cabinet. 
Some years ago Mr. Carruthers found a fossil Fungus in a fragment of a Lepido- 
dendron from the lower Coal-measures of West Yorkshire, of which he gave a brief 
account in his annual address to the Geologists’ Association for 1876. Mr. 
Butterworth, of Oldham, found a second example, which was described and 
* ‘ Histoire des Yegetairs fossiles,’ Part 2, pp. 9, 10, plate 7, figs. 1, 7, ancl 9. 
MDCCCLXXXI. 2 R 
