282 CZEKAXOWSKIA. 



distance, there is no indication of forking, but in a few cases there 

 appear to be indications of dichotomy. Kathorst, in a letter to 

 Heer, 1 expressed the opinion that the leaves of the English 

 examples were unbranched, but, as he pointed out, there is 

 considerable difficulty, owing to the crowding of the leaves, in 

 tracing a single leaf throughout its entire length. In Heer's 

 specimens the needles are often single, and the usual absence of 

 forking in the Yorkshire specimens is no serious obstacle to their 

 identity with some of the Siberian fossils. As the name given 

 by Lindley & Hutton is much older than those of Heer, and seeing 

 that we have the type-specimen of Solenites Mwrayana before 

 us, it is probably the better plan to retain the older specific 

 name, including under that designation some of the examples 

 figured by Heer as Czekanows/aa rigida and as C. setacea. The 

 generic name Cze/canoivsfa'a, which has come into general use, may 

 be substituted for Solenites. 



The fragmentary nature of the specimens of Czelcanowsh'a, and 

 the wide distribution of the genus in rocks of various ages, render 

 an accurate specific determination practically impossible. In the 

 English specimens we seldom find any trace of the scale-leaves or 

 the very short axis which bears the needles, and the resemblance of 

 isolated needles alone is of little value as an index of identity or close 

 affinity. Such a fossil as Nathorst 2 has figured from the Rhaetic 

 beds of Stabbarp in Scania as Czekanoivs/cia rigida appears identical 

 with some of the Yorkshire specimens, but it would be rash to 

 definitely include the Swedish and English examples in one species. 



Type -specimen. The type - specimen of Lindley & Hutton is 

 Ko. 3685 in the British Museum Collection. (Text-fig. 49.) 



Needle-like leaves borne in tufts on deciduous short shoots, 

 surrounded at the base by small imbricate scale-leaves ; the foliage- 

 leaves usually about 1 mm. in breadth or somewhat narrower, and 

 reaching a length of over 17 cm. The needles are in most cases 

 unbranched, but occasionally forked; the epidermis consists of 

 rectangular cells slightly longer than broad; numerous stomata 

 occur in longitudinal rows, separated by a few rows of epidermal 

 cells without stomata. 



1 Heer (77 2 ), pis. v. and vi. 



2 Nathorst (86), p. 96, pi. xx. fig. 6. 



