200 



crctaceous. Thcn a parallel decrcasc in thc nuinher of spccies in 

 l)oth families niay be observcd. It shoiild he noliccd tlial .S</V/- 

 (lopilijs or Scia(loj)iliiles are most frcciuenlly loimd lof^cllicr wilh 

 Ginkgo not only in nicso/oic hul also in Icrtiary dcj)osits iSciddo- 

 pilijs tertiaria and Ginkgo adiantoiiles in llie iipper plioceni- of 

 western (lermany). At Ihe present lime Sciailopitijs as well as Ginkgo 

 is an asiatic type oi' gymnosperms. We tlius find a remarkai)le 

 analogy between tlie Iwo groups in ([uestion. 



Further it is of intercst to comparc thc geological history of 

 Sciadopitijs witli that of tlie other Taxodineae. As far as wc now 

 know most of the latter first ajipear in tlie iower eretaceous, when 

 tlic Sciadopitineae liad probably already reaclied Iheir cubnination. 

 Even in this respcct Sciadopitys occupies an isolated position wilhin 

 the Taxodineae. 



T 11 u s the separation and institution of a spe- 

 cial f a m i 1 y, Sciadopitineae, s c e m s to be v e r i f i e d 

 from a p a 1 e o b o t a n i c a 1 p o i n t of v i e w as well. 



In this connection sonie Avords of VHLEXOVSKYought to be cited here: 



"Die Gattung Sciadopitijs darf nacli allen ihren vegctativen und 

 Rlutentcilen iiberhaupt mil keincr der fridier genannlen Familien 

 (incl. Taxodineae) verbunden werden. Es ist dies cin isolicrler 

 Konifcrentypus, ohne nälierc Verwandtschafl und höchst wahr- 

 scheinlich ans urallen geologischcn Zeilen heriibergekommen." 



Fossil remains of Sciadopitijs had not yet been discovered at the 

 timc when Velexovsky wrote these lines. 



In a following work dealing wilh the geological hislory of thc 

 Taxodineae, Araiicarineae etc, I propose to give a delailed descrip- 

 tion of the above-mentioned species and to discuss Ihe problem 

 of the phylogeny of Sciadopitys. 



State Museum of Xatural History, Paleobotanical Department, 

 Stockholm (Sweden). February 1922. 



LITERATURE CITED. 



Flohin, R. 1922. Uber das VorkomnuMi \on Scicutopitiis iiii doutseluMi 



Tertiär. — Senckenl)eri>iana, IV. 

 GoKPPKRT, II. R. und Menge, A. 1883. Die l"lora des Benisteins. \k\. I. — 



Danzig. 

 GoTUAX, AV. 1921. Lehrbuch der Paläohofanik. Berlin. 



I 



