PALEOBOTANY BEERY. 



361 



least two, and probably three lines of descent are obvious. The first 

 of these is the stock of the family Taxaceae, which is regarded as 

 primitive and a probable offshoot of the Cordaitales by some 

 students, and is considered a modern reduction series by others. 

 Whatever the intricacies of morphological legerdemain, it can be 

 positively affirmed that the Taxaceae go back at least as far as the 

 late Triassic and are hence more ancient than the ancestors assigned 

 for them by nonpaleobotanical students. Moreover, the disconnected 

 geographical distribution of the 17 existing species is a conclusive 

 indication of an extended geological history, as is the greater geo- 

 graphical range of all of the genera in the past than they attain 

 at the present time. The fossil record, in addition to occasional 



Fig. 24. — Foliage and fructification of Palissya. 

 1, 2. Twig and cone of Palissya Braunii Endl, from Rhaetic of Veitlahm near Culmbach, Bavaria. 

 3, 4. Cone scales of P. sphenolepsis Fr Braun in ventral (upper) and side view, showing seed cupules 

 (after Nathorst). 



species of Taxus (Taxites) and Tumion (Torreya) from the Cre- 

 taceous to the present, includes the Triassic genus Palaeotaxus, the 

 Lower Cretaceous genus Cephalotaxites, the Upper Cretaceous genus 

 Cephalotaxites, Cephalotaxospermum, Vesquia, Taxo-torreya, etc. 

 Cephalotaxus fruits have been found in the Pliocene of Europe and 

 all of the other existing genera appear to have been well represented 

 during Cenozoic times. 



That the resemblance of Cephalotaxus to Ginkgo and of Taxus to 

 Corclaianthus, the complex vascular anatomy of the seeds, the ab- 

 sence of resin canals, are not illusory features of the existing species 

 is indicated by the foregoing brief survey of the fossil forms. The 

 second line of descent in the Taxales is represented by the family 



