OF LOWER GftEEXSAXD PLANTS. 209 



number has doubtless been considerably swelled by doubtful 

 determinations, but of the existence of the family in Lower 

 Cretaceous times there is now no question. Berry (1903 B) 

 established the existence of a Taxaceous leaf in the American 

 Middle Cretaceous, which was so preserved that the details of 

 cuticle and stomate arrangement were recognisable. Summa- 

 rising the various American species, Berry (1911, p. 875) says : 

 " The family Taxaceae is abundantly represented in the Lower 

 Cretaceous, and when the individual abundance is considered 

 rather than the specific differentiation, it must be admitted that 

 the family furnishes an important clement in the Potomac 

 flora." The certainty Avhich now attaches to the American 

 Lower Cretaceous fossils of the group strengthens the various 

 European determinations of fruits and foliage from several 

 Middle and Upper Cretaceous deposits. 



The new wood just described affords the earliest record of 

 true Taxacese in Britain. 



V. 5459. Type-specimen. Portion of decorticated wood from 

 which sections have been cut. The wood is now 

 7 cm. long arid 2'5 cm. in diameter, the exterior shows 

 the decorticated wood-texture much teredo-bored. 



V. 5459 a. Transverse section of the above. The whole of the 

 pith and protoxylems are destroyed. The annual 

 rings are well marked, and here and there the 

 secondary wood is well preserved. 



V. 54591). Figured, PL XIX, fig. 1. Transverse section of the 

 above, in which the secondary tissues can be well seen, 

 as is illustrated in the plate arid described in the text. 



V. 5459 C. Figured, PI. XIX, figs. 2 & 3 ; and text-fig. 59. 

 Radial longitudinal section of the above, showing 

 very clearly the pitting of the medullary-ray cells, in 

 which groups of pits with distinct borders lie on the 

 radial wall. 



V. 5459 d. Partly tangential and partly radial section in which 



the pitting on the ray-cells can also be well seen. 

 Lower Greensand; Woburn Sands, Bedfordshire. 



[Collected by U. Vcasey, Esq.'], transferred from the 



Botanical Dept., 18 LI 8. 

 P 



