CON1FERAE. 73 



cornered teeth, but these numerical relations are not constant. According 

 to Saporta l , the middle tooth would answer to the bract, the others to the 

 seminiferous adherent apex of the fertile scale. We are still in uncertainty 

 respecting the seeds ; Nathorst speaks of a single seed, but not without 

 hesitation, and also gives a figure of it 2 ; Saporta maintains that there 

 were several. 



The genus Palissya, Endl., is greatly in want of more thorough elucidation, 

 but, as the localities have ceased to yield specimens, there is unfortunately 

 little further to be learnt after Schenk's repeated examinations 3 . The name 

 has been given to an assemblage of remains of Conifers, consisting of cones 

 of marked character, with seeds and branches from the Rhaetic formation 

 of Franconia ; some leafy branches also from Schonen are referred by 

 Nathorst 4 to the same group, but whether rightly or not can hardly be 

 determined, since the genus is so uncertain. Two species, P. Braunii, Endl, 

 and P. aptera, Sch., are described, but they resemble each other so little 

 that Saporta 5 proposes to remove the latter from the genus and approximate 

 it to Sphenolepis ; Schenk 6 however protests against this arrangement, which 

 would in fact be much more arbitrary than the placing it in Palissya. 

 Palissya Braunii is made up of cones, branches, and seeds found near one 

 another, and apparently united together for this reason only. The branches 

 are in the form of thin rods with very acuminate narrow flat needles loosely 

 and spirally arranged. It does not appear to me quite certain that the 

 cones all belong to the same plant. Schenk 7 figures one cone with spread- 

 ing scales attached to the moderately thick axis, and at the same 'place 

 several others with the scales closed. In the former case he has also given 

 figures of the separate parts 8 showing the position of the seeds ; his scales 

 are flat, elongate-lanceolate, acuminate, the lower portion of the lateral 

 margin being rendered pinnate by the presence of short lobe-like projections 

 directed upwards. I can confirm this representation from examination of 

 the fine specimens in the Geological Department of the British Museum. 

 In the cylindrical closed cones, on the other hand, we can only see 

 crowded lanceolate scales lying one over the other. In one of them 

 which is crushed 9 , and in which we might expect to see the lateral 

 projections, these are not apparent, and this throws doubt on the con- 

 nection. The figures of detached seeds also given by Schenk in the 

 different places differ from one another in not unimportant points, and 

 they therefore appear to me doubtful. In stating that the scale bears 

 several seeds, Schenk refers, as appears from his work 10 , to the above- 

 mentioned lateral projections, which appear in the figures of the parts as 



1 de Saporta (4). 2 Nathorst (2), t. 16, f. n. s Schenk (3) and (8), and Zittel (1), p. 334. 

 4 Nathorst (2). 5 de Saporta (4), vol. iii, p. 512. 6 Zittel (1). 7 Schenk (3 1 ), t 41, f. 9, 



and Zittel (1), p. 335. " Schenk (8), and Zittel (1), p. 336. Zittel (1), f. c. 10 Schenk (8). 



