OF LOWER GREEKS AND PLANTS. 167 



Family CUPRESSINE.E. 



In the fundamental characters of their anatomy, the Cupres- 

 sineae are closely allied to the Abietinese and Taxodineae. They 

 differ from the other Conifers in their external morphology, and 

 have a cyclic arrangement of leaves and cone-scales (often 

 reduced to alternating pairs) as opposed to the spiral arrange- 

 ment common to the other groups. The cones of the Cupres- 

 sineae are seldom large, and often very small and reduced even 

 to the limit of two fertile scales only in a cone composed of very 

 few pairs of scales. The number of seeds per scale varies in 

 different genera, and in some a single scale bears a large number 

 of small seeds. 



No specimens of foliage-impressions or petrifactions, or of 

 cones, of the Cupressiueaa appear to be recorded from the British 

 Lower Greensand deposits. 



As has already been pointed out, the pseudogeneric name 

 C upressinoxylon covers woods from a variety of families, some of 

 which are not Cupressiueari in a modern sense. For the present, 

 however, secondary woods of " Cupressinoxylon " anatomy are 

 most conveniently classified here. We have therefore no certain 

 proof that any true Cupressineae were represented in Britain by 

 Aptian times. Foliage-impressions, such as Frenelopsis, Wid- 

 drinytonites, etc., have been described from different parts of the 

 world from various Cretaceous deposits. In his recent revision, 

 Berry (1911) includes species of these genera definitely in the 

 Cupressiriese from the Maryland equivalents of the Aptian and 

 Albian beds. 



Genus CUPRESSINOXYLON, Goeppert. 

 [Monog. Foss. Conif., 1850, p. 196.] 



Diagnosis. Coniferous wood composed of tracheids and xylem- 

 parenchyma only. In the tracheid-walls the pits are generally 

 round, bordered, and isolated, in one row ; if in two rows the 

 pits stand in adjacent pairs and are not alternating or com- 

 pressed Sanio's rims often conspicuous. Normal resin-canals 

 entirely absent. Resin-containing xylem-parenchyma present, 

 "enerally in large quantities, and scattered all through the 

 wood. Medullary ra)^s uniseriate, a few may be partly biseriate. 



