FLORAS OF THE PAST. 465 



result of careful and systematic investigation of well-pre- 

 served specimens, or the names assigned will possess no 

 scientific value. An exceedingly careful piece of work of 

 this kind has just been completed by Mr. C. A. Barber, 1 who 

 has investigated the structure of some coniferous wood of 

 Lower Greensand age from the Isle of Wight ; he names 

 the species Ctipressinoxy Ion vectense Barb. Dr. Knowlton 2 

 has also described a species of the same genus from rocks of 

 approximately Wealden age near Washington. 



The genus Pinites is well represented not only by 

 petrified wood possessing the anatomical characters 3 of the 

 recent Pinus, but also by numerous leaves, twigs and cones. 

 The genus Araucaria has also Wealden representatives in 

 the form of wood described under the generic name 

 Araucarioxylou, and in leaf-bearing twigs and cones. Some 

 of the coniferous twigs described under the names Pagio- 

 phyllum and Sphenolepidium are, no doubt, fragments of 

 Araucarian trees, and it has been suggested that certain 

 examples of Sphenolepidium are near allies of the recent 

 genus Sequoia now confined to California. The genus 

 Brachyphyllum, another common Wealden conifer, bears a 

 remarkably close resemblance in the formal and stiff habit 

 of its branches with small adpressed scale-leaves to some 

 species of the archaic-looking Tasmanian genus Atkro- 

 taxis. Specimens referred to Thuytes and other genera 

 may be regarded as representatives of the recent Cupres- 

 sinese ; and the genus JVageiopsis, especially characteristic 

 of the American Potomac beds, and represented by one or 

 two fragments from an English locality, may be a near 

 relative of some of the recent species of Podocarptis. It 

 must be remembered, however, that the leaves of the Aus- 

 tralian Araucaria Bidwillii Hook, agree very closely with 

 those of the fossil Nageiopsis, and this genus must be 

 left for the present as one of doubtful systematic position. 

 From Germany and elsewhere, but not so far from any 

 English Wealden locality, leaves have been described which 

 are practically identical with those of Ginkgo biloba L., the 

 maiden-hair tree, an aberrant and almost extinct member 



1 Barber. 2 Knowlton, p. 46, pis. ii. and iii. 3 Carruthers, Seward (3). 



