SPHENOLEPIDIUM. 199 



Pinites Ruffordi, sp. nov. 



V. 2304. A specimen of coniferous wood with, the minute 

 structure clearly preserved, and showing the characters of the 

 genus Pinites. It is proposed to publish elsewhere a detailed 

 description of the anatomy of this specimen of Pinites, under 

 the name of Pinites Ruffordi. The annual rings are very clearly 

 marked ; resin ducts fairly numerous ; the tracheids in radial 

 section show either a single row of bordered pits, or a double 

 row having the arrangement characteristic of the genus Pinites. 

 Ecclesbourne. Rufford Coll. 



Genus SPHENOLEPIDIUM, Heer. 



[Secc. Trab. Geol. Portugal, 1881, p. 19.] 



The generic name Sphenolepis, proposed by Schenk in 1871,' was 

 changed by Heer to Sphenolepidium, on account of the previous use 

 of the former name by Agassiz as a genus of fishes. Heer's new 

 term is adopted by Schenk in his account of fossil Coniferce con- 

 tributed to Zittel's Handbuch? The species of this genus have been 

 included by Schenk and others in the family Taxodiece, but Solms- 

 Laubach 3 considers that the botanical nature of these fossils is too 

 imperfectly known to admit of any precise localization among 

 existing subdivisions of the Group Conifers. Previous writers have 

 drawn attention to the resemblance of the Wealden species, Spheno- 

 lepidium Kurrianum, to Athrotaxis, and Sequoia has also been 

 referred to as the nearest living genus. There is nothing in the 

 nature of the fossil cones of this genus, so far as I am able to judge 

 from the published figures, and an examination of fairly well-pre- 

 served English specimens, to stand in the way of a comparison with 

 these two living genera. As regards the leaf form and arrangement, 

 and the general habit of the fossil species, there is a very close 



1 Palaeontographica, vol. xix. p. 243. 



2 Zittel (A.), p. 304. 



3 Fossil Botany, p. 71. 



