CONIFERAE. 69 



narrow acute lobes. The remains associated together under this name 

 urgently require renewed and careful examination. Of three species 

 described by Stur l from the black slates of Raibl, one, V. raiblensis, Stur, 

 is said to be characterised by scales having three lobes ; it must therefore 

 be nearly allied to V. hexagona. 



Heer 2 has described under the name of Leptostrobus some peculiar 

 cones from the Lower Oolite of Siberia very similar in construction to those 

 of Voltzia coburgensis, Schaur. Schenk 3 has reproduced the figure of one 

 species. The long thin cone is clothed with quinquepartite scales in loose 

 order, but is distinguished by being developed from a short shoot without 

 needles which begins with scale-leaves, as in the silver firs and pines, whereas 

 the cones of the true Voltzias are placed on the summit of leafy branches. 

 Seeds winged as in Cupressineae and found near the cones are referred to 

 them by Heer 4 , who thinks that two of them were attached in a dependent 

 position to each scale. He describes at the same place and figures the 

 short shoots bearing a fascicle of long flat needles, which he considers to 

 have belonged to the shoots because they were found near them. The 

 remains described by the same author as Schidolepium 5 (the name should 

 be Schizolepidium) are so imperfectly known that we need not stay to 

 consider them. The genus Cheirolepis,, Schpr, also is very like Voltzia in 

 the form of the cone-scales. In this genus Schimper 6 has placed the 

 plant described by Schenk 7 as Brachyphyllum Miinsteri from the Rhaetic 

 beds of Bayreuth. A second species, Cheirolepis Escheri, Heer, was after- 

 wards found in the Lias 8 ; the broad cone-scales scarcely narrow at all into 

 a linear stalk, and are inciso-lobate on the upper margin. There are usually 

 five pointed lobes, the lateral ones being the broadest ; but irregularities 

 sometimes occur. The back of the scale, according to Saporta, shows a 

 thickened areola, which as usual he considers to be the bract in combina- 

 tion with the product of its axil. Two ovules are supposed to have been 

 inserted on the opposite side. Saporta further observes that the scales are 

 always found isolated, and concludes that the cones have fallen to pieces. In 

 the figure of the entire cone given by Schenk, which he says consists of 

 five-lobed scales, I can see nothing that resembles them. These remains of 

 cones are accompanied by copiously and irregularly ramifying branches 

 with short scale-like leaves spirally arranged ; but it is not certainly proved 

 that the two belong to one another, because the cone in question does not 

 clearly show the characters of the genus. 



The genus Schizolepis, F. Braun, has elongated thin cones resembling 

 those of Voltzia coburgensis, but of smaller size and with scales not closely 

 set ; of this genus two well -ascertained species are known from the Rhaetic 



1 Stun(l). * Heer (5), vol. iv. 3 Zittel (1;, p. 291. * Heer (5), vol. vi. 5 Heer : . 

 vol. vi. 6 Schimper (I). 7 Schenk (3). * de Saporta (4), vol. iii. 



