534 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



the present writer described woods of a similar type with a similar 

 expression of affinities from a horizon, variously estimated from Middle 

 to Lower Cretaceous, displayed at Kreischerville, Staten Island, N. Y.'^ 

 It will be noted that the weight of opinion is against Gothan, in the 

 matter of the reference of woods Araucarian in other respects, which 

 have the strongly pitted rays of the Abietineae, to affinities with that 

 tribe of Conifers, since Professor Seward, Professor Lignier and the 

 writer agree in retaining them with the Araucariineae. Since a 

 correct scientific verdict, however, does not depend on majorities, it 

 will be well to investigate the matter from other standpoints. 



A fundamental doctrine of Biology, owing its origin primarily to 

 the deductive methods of the philosopher rather than to the more 

 severe inductive procedure of the sciences, but since strongly confirmed 

 by purely inductive data, is the doctrine of recapitulation. While 

 it is undoubtedl}^ the case that the seedlings and sporelings of the 

 higher plants vouch in the strongest way for the validity of the recapi- 

 tulation hypothesis, we have on the vegetable side corollaries to that 

 doctrine, not illustrated as a rule by animals. There are organs of 

 the plant for example, even more strongly retentive of ancestral 

 characters than the seedling stem. Perhaps the most conservative 

 organ is the root, which varies so little in its fundamental organization 

 throughout the vascular plants, that one formula will represent the 

 organization of all roots. In the case of the Gymnosperms and other 

 typically coniferous groups, the axis of the cone has likewise been 

 found to be strongly retentive of features which have disappeared 

 entirely in the vegetative stem. Figure c, Plate 1, shows the inner 

 region of the woody cylinder of the cone of Agathis aiistraUs, in trans- 

 verse section. It is clear that the cells of the wood rays are in contrast 

 to the typical condition for liA'ing Araucarian Conifers, very strongly 

 thickened and even in this unfavorable plane of section, obviously 

 pitted. We have in other words a condition present like that found 

 in certain Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous woods which have been 

 referred by the majority of paleobotamists, who have specially inves- 

 tigated them, to Araucarian affinities. Gothan however as pointed 

 out above, places them on account of their thickened and strongly 

 pitted ray-cells among the Abietineae. Figure d, Plate 1, shows a 

 vertical section of one of the rays of the cone of Agathis australis, 

 from which the contents have been removed in order that the sculpture 



7 Araucariopitys, a new genus of Araucarians, Bot. Gaz., 44, 1-15, pis. 

 27-30, (1907). 



