CONIFERAE. 6 1 



Solenhofen, which were all called Arthrotaxites or Echinostrobus princeps, 

 many examples of Palaeocyparis may be distinguished by the position of 

 the leaves. As far as we can determine from branches alone, we should be 

 justified in classing with Cupressineae the peculiar remains which were first 

 described as fern-leaves under the name of Moriconia Cyclotoxon by 

 Debey and Ettingshausen 1 , but were afterwards seen by Saporta 2 to be 

 of coniferous origin. This form shows the pinnate habit of the fern-leaf, 

 for the branches are occupied by two rows of lateral branchlets of 

 limited growth with crowded decussate leaves, which are flat and sharply 

 keeled and disposed in alternating rows, exactly after the manner of the 

 Cupressineae. Figures of these fossils are to be found in Zittel 3 and Heer 4 . 

 Moriconia is known at present only from the Chalk, and is compared by 

 Schenk to Libocedrus. To the Chalk also belong certain distinctly arti- 

 culated branch-systems with lateral branches pinnately disposed in two 

 rows, and pairs of decussated slightly projecting scales separated by long 

 internodes and often not preserved ; these fossils, formerly known as Culm- 

 ites, have been named by Schenk 5 Frenelopsis Hoheneggeri. That they 

 really belong to the Cupressineae has been made probable by the researches 

 of Zeiller 6 , who examined the epidermis in specimens from the Turonian 

 beds of Bagnols, and found that the stomata showed certain peculiarities 

 which occur in Frenela ; but Schenk 7 points out that they are distin- 

 guished from Frenela by having two members only and not three in the 

 leaf-whorls. 



In speaking of the Taxineae it will be convenient to leave the Salis- 

 burias, as a special group, for after consideration. They may be properly 

 considered a group apart on account of the peculiar development of the 

 germ, even if we do not with van Tieghem and his school explain the 

 female flowering shoot as a fertile scale bearing several ovules. Of the 

 remaining forms, the majority of which have only slightly marked pecu- 

 liarities in the vegetative organs, few remains have been preserved in the 

 fossil state, and the affinities of these are in most cases more than usually 

 doubtful, as is plainly expressed in Schenk's 8 account of Torreya, Cepha- 

 lotaxus, Taxus, and Podocarpus, to which we may refer the reader. If the 

 piece of a branch bearing seeds from the beds of Patoot in Greenland, which 

 Heer 9 has figured as Cephalotaxites insignis, really belongs to the Taxineae, 

 as the habit seems to show, we should have this type from the uppermost 

 part of the Chalk. Remains of leaves from the Rhaetic beds 10 , which were 

 formerly considered to be the ultimate ramifications of Phyllocladus, are 

 now generally regarded as pinnae of a Fern or Cycad (Thinnfeldia). Heer 11 



1 Debey and von Ettingshausen (1). * de Saporta (9). * Zittel (1), p. 318. * Heer (5). 

 Schenk (4) ; see also Zittel (1), p. 314. Zeiller (2). 7 Zittel (1), p. 314. 8 Zittel (1). 

 9 Heer (5), vol. 71, t. 53. 10 F. Braun (1). " Heer (5), vol. 3 n, p. 129; t. 17. 



