6& CONIFEKAE. 



may have dropped, but it is also possible that it is really wanting, perhaps 

 through arrest of growth. The seeds l are flattened, ovoid or elongated, and 

 girt by a narrow wing with an acute-angled notch at its apex. Such a 

 structure of the cone, since there is nothing to indicate that the scale was 

 double, affords no ground for placing the genus with Abietineae ; we are 

 naturally led to a comparison with forms of the series of Araucarieae, and 

 in this comparison the flat scales seem to point to affinity with the typical 

 Araucaria, the structure of the seed with Sequoia. We must remain in 

 doubt on this point as long as we are in ignorance of the anatomical 

 structure of the scales, for it is this which supplies the decisive characters. 

 Male flowers which have been found with specimens of Voltzia heterophylla 

 and V. recubariensis are strikingly like those of our pines. The above 

 description of the cones of Voltzia is drawn from the best-known species, 

 V. Liebeana, Gein., and V. heterophylla, Brongn., in both of which cones 

 have been found attached to the branches. In V. heterophylla, a char- 

 acteristic fossil of the Bunter Sandstone, very fine specimens of which 

 have been found at Sulzbad in the Vosges, the shape of the leaves varies 

 much. Generally they resemble those of Araucaria excelsa, being bent 

 into the form of a curved thorn or hook from a decurrent base, but in 

 places, especially at the summit of the branch, they are linear and acicular 

 and much elongated. Schimper 2 has figured fine branches with both kinds 

 of foliation. This latter form of leaf is the only or the prevailing one 

 in the Permian species V. Liebeana, Gein., of which splendid specimens 

 are found about Gera 3 . The Permian beds of Ftinfkirchen supply V. 

 hungarica, Hecr 4 also, which resembles V. Liebeana but is distinguished by 

 the narrower lobes of the fertile scales, and the Rothliegende of Huckelheim 

 V. hexagona, Bisch. 5 , in which the cone-scales have only three lobes. In 

 both cases the scales are accompanied by branches with long leaves which 

 have been generally supposed to belong to them, and which are in fact very 

 like the well-ascertained foliage of V. Liebeana. As we have V. hetero- 

 phylla in the Bunter Sandstone, so we have V. recubariensis in the Lower 

 Muschelkalk of the Southern Alps. Recoaro near Vicenza has supplied 

 abundant material, which has been examined by Schenk 6 . Here too 

 the characteristic cone - scales have been united to male flowers and 

 branches with short leaves solely on the strength of their all occurring 

 together, but the propriety of this is made more than probable by the 

 resemblance of the shoots to those of the species first considered. A 

 peculiar species, V. coburgensis, Schaur. (Glyptolepis Keuperiana, Schpr.), 

 occurs in the Keuper of Coburg. It is marked by long narrowly cylindrical 

 laxly-leaved cones in which the scales have their margins divided into many 



J Solms, Graf zn (1), t. 2, ff. 29, 30, and Schenk (5), t 11, f. i. 2 Schimper (3). 3 Geinitz (2). 

 Heer (13). s Bischoff (1;. 6 Schenk (5). 



