yo CONIFERAE. 



beds, namely S. Braunii, Schenk 1 , from Franconia, and S. Follini, Nath. 2 , 

 from Palsjo in Schonen. An older species founded on very fragmentary 

 remains, S. permensis, Heer, requires further verification. The scales of S. 

 Braunii, according to Schenk, are narrowed below ; the seminiferous expan- 

 sion is concave, and the upper margin is split into two ovate lobes. He 

 could see no indication of a differentiation into coherent fertile scale and 

 bract, and therefore thinks that the genus belongs perhaps rather to 

 Abietineae. Saporta 3 on the other hand sees in the transverse bounding 

 line of the concave seminiferous expansion the apex of the bract-scale, which 

 is overtopped by the adherent two-lobed fertile scale. Both authors affirm 

 that there are two seeds, and that the point of their insertion is marked on 

 the expansion of the scale by circular spots of a lighter colour. Of the 

 seeds themselves Saporta says that they are not winged, and, if I understand 

 his account aright, that they are erect. Schenk thinks that they are pendu- 

 lous. I know not what is the foundation for these latter statements ; as no 

 seed is anywhere figured, I incline to believe that they are conclusions from 

 the position of the supposed points of insertion, which would certainly be 

 quite inadmissible. The scales, at first pressed against the slender axis of 

 the cone, appear afterwards to spread. The cones of the other species, 

 similar in habit, would be distinguished according to Saporta 4 by having 

 scales not narrowing downwards, but the figures, which are taken from 

 plaster of Paris casts of the flat moulds on the slate-beds, are diagrammati- 

 cally represented. According to Nathorst's figures 5 we might almost doubt 

 whether these remains belong to the genus which we are considering, for in 

 figures 4, 5, 6, and 8, between and by the side of the two-lobed forms, 

 broad scales may be seen with numerous furrows and terminal lobes like 

 those of Voltzia coburgensis. We might take the latter for the real cone- 

 scales, and the two-lobed forms for the impressions of the two seeds which 

 were attached to them, and which have been laid bare by fracture of the 

 stone. There are in this case therefore still a number of doubts to be 

 removed ; and while we are thus imperfectly informed respecting the cones, 

 we know nothing at all about the foliage of Schizolepis, for there is nothing 

 to make it even probable that the numerous needles which lie one above 

 another in the beds at Palsjo, any more than the branches beset with 

 needle-bearing shoots which Schenk has referred to this genus, have any 

 connection with Schizolepis. 



Heer 6 has described under the name of Inolepis some cone-bearing 

 branches from the Urgonian Cretaceous formation of Greenland, which 

 in the decussated arrangement of their scales have entirely the habit 

 of Cupressineae. The terminal ovoid cones, which unfortunately show 



1 Schenk (3). 2 Nathorst (2). * de Saporta (4). * de Saporta (4), vol. iii, t 194. 



8 Nathorst (2), t. 15, ff. 4, 5, 6, 8. Heer (5), vol. 3 n, tt. 16, 23. 



