'<s 



52 



I should have been disposed to separate this cone, as representing a dis- 

 tinct species, on account of its slender axis, slender branches, and shorter, 

 more open, and close receptacles ; but these characters are not of positive 

 specific importance, and as we do not know the leaves of this Conifer, nor the 

 form of the scales of the strobile, they do not authorize a multiplication of 

 nomenclature, especially in this case, where Heer's species has been already 

 described in its different forms under six generic or specific names. There 

 is also a probability of identity of species in this fact, that S. reichenbachi has 

 been described from the Upper Cretaceous of Greenland, whose flora, from 

 recent discoveries, seems to be closely related to that of the Dakota group. 

 It should be remarked, howevei - , that Heer refers to his species Cunning- 

 hamites sternbergii, Etting., to which I have compared the former species, 

 recognizing positive difference. Now, this broken cone of our Cretaceous 

 bears in its general form and size the same relation to S. reichenbachi as that 

 of Sequoia formosa bears to the cones described by Ettinghausen. If, there- 

 fore, the European forms belong to the same species, S. reichenbachi, the cone 

 of ours, Fig. 10, is different and may represent a crushed dry cone of S. for- 

 mosa. The relation of these strobiles cannot be positively recognized as 

 long as the leaves and scales are unknown. 



Habitat. — Nine miles south of Fort Harker, Kansas. 



Glyptostrobus gracillimus, Lesqx., PI. i, Figs. 8, 11-11/ 



Branches fastigiate, very slender, thread-like, much divided ; leaves imbricate, appressed, embrac- 

 ing at the base, linear lanceolate, more or less abruptly pointed ; cone narrow, cylindrical. 



Ghjptostrobus gracillimus, Lesqx., American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. 



xlvi, p. 92. — Frenclites reichii ("?), Ettinghs., Kreide flora von Nieders., p. 



12, PI. i, Fig. 10. — Lycopodites insignis, Reich. Bronn, Lethsea geogn., 



1846, p. 577, PI. xxviii, Fig. 13. 



The specimens where this small species of Conifer is preserved are 

 irregularly covered or perforated in various directions by the deep impressions 

 of thread-like branches, scarcely 1 millimeter thick, round and knotty by 

 the base of' the leaves, which appear as placed in whorls or by four. The 

 branches are irregular in their divisions, either alternate or opposite, or 

 one-sided, of various length, erect, crowded, with leaves closely appressed, 

 imbricated and biform, either linear, lanceolate, sharply pointed, or shorter, 

 more abruptly pointed and slightly obtuse, without trace of a medial nerve. 

 As seen in the figures \\d to/ much enlarged, the lower part of the leaves 



