2()1 



ceae.'' Seward considers Sciadopitiis lo l)o llic only reprcscnialivc 

 of a separatc family, Sci(i<I<>i)iline<ie. c((uivalonl lo Ahicliiicde, Arauca- 

 rineae, Ta.vineae clc. 



From thc paleobotanical side only a fcw conliihiilioiis of valiic 

 to thc knoAvlcdgc of thc geological hislory and thc phylogcny of 

 Sciadopitijs havc hithcrto bccn puhlishcd. Thc first un(|iicstional)lc 

 discovcry of fossil SciadopiUjs is made by Menzel (1913) in Ihe 



Fig. 1. Stoma of Sciadopiti/s verticillata in median transverse 



section, showing "Vorhof ", central pore and papiilatc 



subsidiary cells. 



tertiary formation of western Germany. Halle (1915) has descri- 

 bed some coniferous leaves of crctaceoiis age from Greenland as 

 Sciadopitijtes. This genus was instituted i)y Goeppeut many years 

 ago for some forms from the tertiary formation of Samland, thc 

 real nature of which has hithcrto remained obscure. I have re- 

 cently tried to find thc typc specimens of the two specics of 

 Goeppert but have not been successful. Halle has given the fol- 

 lowing diagnosis of Sciadopitijtes: 



"Linear leaves of Conifer-like habit, with a dorsal median groove 

 which is protected by elongatcd papillae and whose epidermal 

 tissue differs from that of the rest of thc Icaf through a non-seriate 

 arrangement of the cells and thc occurrence of stomala." 



I 



