BEACHYPHTLLUM. 219 



Type. Portions of vegetative branches. 



Heer instituted this species from some fragments of coniferous 

 branches from the Lower Cretaceous rocks of Almargem, Portugal; 

 and denned it as follows : 



" Br. ramis alternis, ramulis numerosis, aggregatis, crassis, 

 brevibus, apice obtusis, foliis rhombeis, dense imbricatis, dorso 

 leviter striatis." 



In his recent monograph on the Portuguese flora, Saporta 

 proposes a new specific name, obesiforme, for some examples of 

 Brachyphyllum, which he considers may be distinguished from. 

 Heer's species by their more slender branches, which are less thick- 

 set, more elongated, and subdivided. He speaks of the difference 

 between the two forms as slight, and admits that one may be 

 merely a variety of the other. If we compare Saporta's figures with 

 those of B. obesum given by Heer, it must be admitted that the 

 grounds for a specific distinction are extremely slight, and we may 

 not unreasonably regard the two sets of specimens as specifically 

 identical. Another specimen figured by Saporta is spoken of as 

 B. obesiforme var. elongatum ; this, again, appears to be too closely 

 allied to such examples of B. obesiforme as are figured on pi. xxxi. 

 figs. 12 and 13 to be entitled to a separate designation. The new 

 specific term instituted by Fontaine for some Potomac specimens is 

 perhaps a somewhat unnecessary addition to specific nomenclature ; 

 the author of the species does not, apparently, draw attention to 

 the very close resemblance between the fossils he describes as 

 B. crassicaule and those already figured by Heer and Saporta as 

 B. obesum. The figures in Fontaine's pi. cix. may include more 

 than one specific form, but the evidence is too meagre to admit 

 of exact determination ; figs. 4 and 5 resemble the form named 

 by Saporta B. confusum, 1 but the difference between this species 

 and B. obesum is very small. The agreement between Fontaine's 

 pi. cix. fig. 1 (B. crassicaule} and Heer's pi. xvii. fig. 2, is very 

 striking : compare also Fontaine, pi. cix. fig. 2, Heer, pi. xvii. 

 fig. 3, and Saporta, pi. xxxi. fig. 12. Fontaine's species, B. par- 

 eeramosum, z comes very near to the specimen figured by Saporta as 

 B. obesiforme var. elongatum. 



1 Flor. foss. Portugal, p. 112, pi. xxi. fig. 8. 



2 Potomac Flora, pi. ex. fig. 4. 



