DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 



partly covered by the coarse sandy matrix. A second 

 specimen adheres to the branch, cemented on by the 

 matrix. The dark close- textured petrifying medium 

 has probably preserved the cell-structure very well, 

 and it is likely that the specimen would show good 

 tissue if sections of it were cut. Labelled as from 

 4 ' Junction of Gault and Lower Greensand, Ventnor, 

 Skanklin." 



Presented by Hon. Rolert Mursliam-Townslien.d, 1877. 



V. 4444. A small piece of secondary wood, 0-5 x 2 cm., com- 

 pletely embedded in very coarse granular matrix. 

 The wood is petrified in a hard, dark, silicified medium, 

 and would probably show its structure fairly well if 

 sections were cut. Luccomb Chine, Isle of Wight (?>. 



rred from the Butanlcal 



Family TAXIXEJ3. 



This is a rather unnatural family composed of two sharply 

 separated sub-families, the Taxacea) in the Northern Hemisphere 

 and the Podocarpacea? in the Southern. The grouping of these 

 two families under the one. Taxineae, seems to me to be very 

 artificial, though it is the classification at present current. In 

 their anatomy, their vegetative habit, the details of their repro- 

 ductive morphology, and their geographical distribution the 

 two groups are unlike : they agree, however, in having large 

 seeds (solitary or in pairs) surrounded by fleshy and often 

 brightly coloured coverings, borne, or when ripe having the 

 appearance of being borne, isolated among the foliage branches, 

 while all the other Coniferous families have definite cones 

 bearing dry woody seeds. The J fructification in both groups 

 consists of small cones. 



The separation of the two sub-families is well marked in their 

 wood-anatomy, the Taxacete (represented in wood- fossils by 

 Taxoxylon) having spiral thickening in their secondary tracheids, 

 the Podocarpaceae (represented by PodocarpoxyloH, including 

 Phyllocladoxylon of Gothan) being without spiral thickening, 

 but having characteristic pitting in their medullary ray-cells. 



