Vascular cambium and wood development in Carboniferous plants. III. Arthropitys (Equisetales; Calamitaceae)

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Abstract
Vascular cambium activity was examined in Arthropitys communis (Binney) Hirmer et Knoell, and A. deltoides Cichan et Taylor, anatomically preserved calamite stems from the Pennsylvanian of Kentucky. Developmental characteristics of the meristem were inferred from changes in the size and number of tracheids and ray cells determined from serial tangential sections of the secondary xylem. In A. communis, circumferential enlargement of the cambium seems to have been accommodated primarily by the enlargement of fusiform initials. Qualitative and quantitative evidence is also presented indicating that “marginal” interfascicular ray initials were converted to fusiform initials during the early stages of cambial activity. In A. deltoides, circumferential enlargement of the meristem was accommodated by the enlargement of fusiform initials and by an increase in size and number of interfascicular ray initials. Multiplicative division of the fascicular ray initials appears to have been an important feature of cambial activity in both species. There is no qualitative or quantitative evidence that the number of fusiform initials in either species was augmented by anticlinal division as in extant seed plants.