130 CONTRIBUTIONS TO PAL.EONTOLOGY 



Family ARAUCARIACE.E 



Genus ARAUCARITES Presl 



Araucarites longifolia (Lesquereux) Dorf, n. comb. 



(Plate 4, Figs. 9, 12, 13; Plate 5, Figs. 1-6) 



Sequoia Inngifolia Lesquereux, U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., Ann. Rept. (1874), 298, 1870; Rept. U. S. 



Geol. Surv. Terr., vol. 7, 79, pl. 7, figs. 14, 14a, pl. 61, figs. 2S, 29, 1878. Cockerell, Torreya, vol. 9, 142, 



1909. Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 130, 115, pl. 3, fig. 3, pl. 4, fig. 2, 1922. Dorf, Bull. 



Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 51, 218, 222, 225, 1940. 

 Sequoia acuminata Lesquereux, U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., Ann. Rept. (1874), 310, 1876; Rept. U. S. 



Geol. Surv. Terr., vol. 7, 80, pl. 7, figs. 15-16o, 1878. Knowlton, Jour. Geol., vol. 19, 371, 1911; U. S. 



Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 130, 114, pl. 2, figs. 7, 8, 1922. Dorf, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 508, pt. I, 



45, pl. 2, fig. 1, 1938. 

 Geinitzia longifolia (Lesquereux) Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Surv. BuII. 163, 28, 1900. 

 Cunninghamites? sp., Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Surv. BuU. 163, 29, pl. 5, fig. 3, 1900. 

 Geinilzia formom Heer. Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Surv. BuII. 163, 28, pl. 5, figs. 1,2, 1900; U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. 



Paper 101, 251, pl. 31, figs. 1-3, 1917. 

 Dammara sp., Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 130, 114, pl. 2, fig. 4, 1922. 

 Dammara'! sp., Dorf, BuII. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 51, 218, 222, 225, 1940. 



Several hundred specimens of this long-leaved conifer and associated cone scales were ob- 

 tained, mainly from Locality P3853. About 150 specimens were retained for study. The re- 

 covery of so large a suite of specimens, showing man.y stages of growth and varieties of preserva- 

 tion, has made it possible to show that the .several species cited above are in reaUty referable to a 

 single species. The specific name longifolia has priority over the others. 



As was pointed out by Knowlton,' the original type specimens of Sequoia longifolia were 

 described by Lesquereux from the Mesaverde formation at Point of Rocks, Wyoming. The 

 original description was as foUows: 



"Branches and branchlets thick; leaves close, open, sHghtly narrowed to the decurring base, 

 thick; scars deep, ligulate, obtusely pointed, marked by a deep groove in the middle." 



The Lance Creek foliage specimens clearly agree with this description and are indistingui.sh- 

 able from the original type and figured specimens. None of these, moreover, differ in any vaUd, 

 essential detail from the specimens from Black Buttes which were called Sequoia acuminata. 

 Lesquereux recognized the close resemblance of these specimens to S. longifolia and hesitated to 

 describe the two specics as distinct. They apparently differed only in the absencc of scars on the 

 branches of S. acuminata. From the numerous specimcns available in the Lance Creek coUections 

 it is evident that leaf scars are often concealed by fiattened leaf bases; accordingly, the absence of 

 leaf scars in the Black Buttes specimens is here regarded as fortuitous. 



The Mesaverde (?) specimens of Geinitzia longifolia and Cunninghamites? sp. were inchided 

 in the species Sequoia longifolia by Knowlton - on what appear to be justifiable grounds. Nor is 

 thcre any discernible differcnce in f he Mesaverde and Vermejo specimens which Knowlton rcforred 

 to Geinitzia formosa Heer. Knowiton characterized these specimens in part by the alternation 

 of the normal needles "with smaller intermediate scalelike leaves." The type specimens do not 

 bear out this observation ; the apparent smaller loaves aro merely the basal parts of longer leaves 

 which are cut off by projcction into the matrix or out to the fracturo i)lano along whicli the rock 

 was split. 



The intimate association of a groat many individual cone scales with the hundreds of speci- 

 mens of the foHage of this type, coupled with the absence of other conifer foliage or cone scales at 

 these locahties, makes it reasonably certain that these two types of remains belong to the same 

 species of conifer. These cone scales (plate 5, figs. 2-6) are identical with the type specimen and 

 with more completo, unfigurcd specimens ' of Dammara sp., from the Laramie formation at 

 Marshall, Colorado. As at the Lance Creek localities, these Laramie cone scales wcre associated 

 at the Marshall locality with foliage referred to Scquoia longifolia. A similar occurrence of this 

 type of cone scale and foHage has been noted in a coUection frora the Hell Creek formation at the 



• Knowlton, F. H., U. S. Gcol. Surv. Prof. Paper 130, 115, 1922. 

 > Ibid. 



• U. S. National Museum collections, No. 36709. 



