53 



seems slightly narrowed from the middle downward, an appearance resulting 

 from their concavity in the embracing, of the stems toward the base. The 

 top of some of the branches is enlarged by an agglomeration of small scales, 

 whose form, as far as it can be recognized, is figured lie enlarged. These 

 are apparently male catkins of the plant. One of the numerous specimens 

 covered with branches of this little Conifer is traversed by a small narrow 

 cone which appears cylindrical, but of which only a few scales are visible. 

 These are rhomboidal in outline, pointed at the corners, marked in the middle 

 by an oval dot with thin, linear close striee, diverging to the borders : Fig. 8 

 enlarged. 



I have referred this species to the genus Glyptostrobus on account of the 

 form and mode of divisions of its branches, of the scale-like leaves without 

 nerves, and of the form and position of the male catkins. But since the pub- 

 lication of my paper on the Cretaceous plants of Nebraska, {loc. cit.,) I have 

 received, by the kindness of the author, the Cretaceous flora of Niederschoeua, 

 containing description and figures of Frenelites reichii, which so well agree 

 with the characters of this species that I scarcely doubt their identity. 

 The only appreciable difference is in the leaves, which, as figured 10Z> by the 

 European author, are shorter and marked by a costa. The leaves, however, 

 are not figured separately, and may not have been distinct enough to ascer- 

 tain their exact form. The genus Frenelia, Mirb., is represented by a number 

 of species now inhabiting only New Holland, Tasmania, and New Caledonia. 

 From the description of the genus, the branches are terete and the branchlets 

 alternately triquetrous, rarely tetraquetrous, and closely articulated ; the leaves 

 are verticillate by three, rarely by four, adnate, but free in their whole length 

 at the summit, and in the inferior branches only joined to the stem by their 

 base, somewhat open and linear. ■ This agrees well enough with the descrip- 

 tion and figures of our fossil species, and even the few scales, recognized from 

 a cone, do not appear to differ from those of a Frenelia, which in old strobiles 

 are woody, connate at their base only, smooth, rugose or tuberculate on the 

 back, with a bract, mucronate or mucronulate at the top. I have, however, 

 been unable as yet to obtain for comparison a branch bearing an old cone of 

 a Frenelia, and I am, therefore, still in doubt about the true reference of this 

 Cretaceous species. It would not be strange to have in these remains the 

 representative of another type of Australian Conifers, or of a flora to which 

 some leaves of the Dakota group seem to be related. 



Habitat. — Near Sioux City: mouth of Iowa Creek, Hayden. 



