38 Annals of the South African Museum. 



bending down into a thin lateral wing, as in the scales of Araucaria 

 cookii and other recent members of the Eutacta division of 

 Araucaria ; surface of the scales characterised by the occurrence of 

 forked ribs (vascular bundles), which follow a more or less vertical 

 course ; each scale bears a single obovate seed, terminating distally 

 in a bluntly rounded base. No trace of a "ligule," 



The collection includes several examples of cone-scales like those 

 represented on pi. vi., figs. 4-7, which agree so closely with the 

 cone-scales of Araucaria cookii and other recent species of Araucaria 

 that I have no hesitation in referring them to the genus Araucarites. 

 They are practically identical with the recent type of ovuliferous 

 seeds characteristic of the Eutacta section of Araucaria. There is 

 one specimen in the Museum of the Geological Society (11,117) 

 collected by Atherstone in 1858, which is no doubt the example 

 referred to by Tate as " the under surface of the base of a cone," " 

 and doubtfully determined as cycadean. This specimen represents 

 several broad scales adhering together in their original position. 

 Among fossil forms there are several Mesozoic species which pre- 

 sent a close resemblance to Araucarites rogersi, but the agreement 

 is hardly such as to justify the inclusion of the African cone-scales 

 in any previously recorded species. Araucarites macroiJteris f and 

 A. cutchensis,X described by Feistmantel from the Eajmahal and 

 Jabalpur series of India, represent closely allied types. Araucarites 

 wyomingensis Ward,§ from the Neocomian of Dakota, affords 

 evidence of the occurrence of a similar species of the genus in 

 North America. Among English species Araucarites brodiei,\\ 

 A. philli]osii,'\\ A. spliarocarpus,-"^' described by Carruthers from 

 Jurassic strata, afford other examples of broad Araucarian cone- 

 scales ; and a specimen figured by Fric and Bayer from Lower 

 Cretaceous rocks of Bohemia as " cf. Araucaria bohemica Vel.," f i 

 may also be mentioned as evidence of the existence of this type of 

 Araucarites in Europe. 



In the absence of more perfect material it is probably better to 

 include the smaller scale repi-esented in fig. 5, pi. vi., with the larger 

 form under one specific name. 



* Tate (67), p. 147. 



t Feistmantel (77=), pi. viii., figs. 9-12 ; (79), pi. xiv., xvi. 



I Feistmantel (79), pi. xiv., xvi. 



§ Ward (99), pi. clxiii., figs. 1-6, 8, 9. 



II Carruthers (69=), pi. ii., figs. 1-6. 



•f Ibid., pi. ii., fig. 7-9 ; Seward (00), pi. x., fig. 4. 



** Carruthers (66) (71). ft Fric and Bayer (01), fig. 50. 



