CONIFERAE. 77 



remarks contained in a note are agreeably supplemented by Renault \ who 

 has had opportunity of examining the original specimen. This author 

 says that there can be no doubt about the axillary seeds, which are ovoid, 

 four to five millimetres in length, and suddenly and finely acuminate ; their 

 rind of coal encloses a nucleus of pyrites. The little buds of the other branch 

 are also converted into pyrites, and Renault has not been quite able to 

 satisfy himself that they are male catkins. Somewhat similar remains to 

 those described by the French authors have been noticed by Goppert 2 ; 

 his figure shows the extremity of a branch from which numerous small 

 ovoid seed-like bodies are dropping ; the other figure shows numerous buds 

 in the axil of a leaf, which may be compared with the similar forms from 

 the branch in question. Lastly, Renault 3 gives the name of Pseudowalchia 

 frondosa to a branch of some species of Walchia from Millery near Autun, 

 in which ovoid seed-like bodies are terminal on the extremity of the branch, 

 but he himself does not lay much weight on this solitary specimen. 



If Walchia is very open to the suspicion of being an artificial and 

 provisional collection of heterogeneous remains of similar habit, it is quite 

 certain that this is the case with the genus Pagiophyllum, Heer (Pachy- 

 phyllum, Sap.), which we must now consider. The name is given to 

 branches with closely crowded spiral usually short but sometimes elongate 

 lanceolate leaves springing from decurrent leaf-cushions, such branches as 

 are of frequent occurrence especially in the Mesozoic formations. The leaves 

 are often more or less strongly keeled on the back, and show numerous rows 

 of pinhole-like stomata. A number of species from the Trias, the Jurassic 

 system, and the Chalk will be found cited in Schenk 4 ; the Jurassic speci- 

 mens are discussed at length by Saporta 5 . Older authors, who may be 

 consulted in Saporta's work, usually call them Araucaritae. Whether the 

 Solenhofen cone figured by Saporta 6 really belongs to his Pachyphyllum 

 cirinicum is uncertain ; the same may be said of the scales found by Pomel 

 with P. rigidum, Sap., in the Infra-Liassic beds of Metz. Even if it were 

 quite certain that they belong to P. cirinicum, they could only inform us 

 concerning the fructification of that species ; the fructification might be 

 quite different in other species. It is only in accordance with old custom 

 to distinguish the Ullmanniae of the Zechstein from Pagiophyllum, as I have 

 endeavoured to show elsewhere 7 . The genus Ullmannia was originally 

 established by Goppert 8 by arbitrarily uniting together certain branches 

 and cone-like objects ; the branches had been for the most part described 

 by the older writers as Caulerpites and Fucoides. As they are sometimes 

 petrified in calcium carbonate, it has been possible to determine the 



1 Renault (,2), vol. iv, p. 88. 3 Goppert (3), t. 49, ff. u, 13- 3 Renault (4). * Zittel (1), 

 p. 276. 5 de Saporta (4). 6 de Saporta (4), t. 180. 7 Solms, Graf zu (1). 



8 Goppert (3) and (4). 



