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256 ARAUCARINEAE 



and their relation to the ligular outgrowth, as well as the occurrence 

 of separate bordered pits on the tracheids suggest comparison 

 with the recent genus Cunninghamia, though the structure of the 

 scales is more akin to that of Araucarian sporophylls. The com- 

 bination of features which are now distributed among different 

 genera is to be expected in extinct types belonging to evolutionary 

 stages anterior to the divergence of characters along independent 

 lines. The main conclusion is that the affinities are Araucarian 

 though the morphological characters are such as to indicate a com- 

 bination of features no longer found in a single genus. 



Cones exhibiting a close resemblance to those of Araucaria. 

 ARAUCARITES. Presl. 

 Araucarites sphaerocarpus Carruthers. 



This species (fig. 737), from Inferior Oolite rocks at Bruton, 

 Somersetshire 1 , affords a good example of a large Araucarian cone 

 13 cm. in diameter very similar in form to some recent species 

 (cf. fig. 680 and fig. 681). The rhomboidal scales, 2 cm. broad at 

 the distal end, are laterally winged as in Araucaria Cookii (fig. 638, 

 A) and bear a single seed embedded in the middle of the upper 

 surface : on the exposed distal ends is a transverse groove and on 

 some of the more complete examples a short rounded umbo is 

 seen below the groove; in some scales a transverse row of pits 

 marks the position of vascular bundles just below the transverse 

 depression. 



Araucarites ooliticus (Carruthers). 



This species was originally described by Carruthers as Kaida- 

 carpum ooliticum 2 from the Great Oolite of Northamptonshire and 

 regarded as an inflorescence of some Pandanaceous plant. Zigno 3 

 transferred it to Pandanocarpum. An examination of the type- 

 specimen in the Northampton Museum led me to refer the cone to 

 Araucarites*. The type-specimen (fig. 738) is a portion of a cone 

 9 cm. long consisting of a stout central axis covered with spirally 

 disposed deep pits bounded by a crystalline reticulum; the pits 



1 Carruthers (66) PL xi.; Seward (04) B. p. 131; (II 3 ) p. 116, fig. 18. 



2 Carruthers (68) p. 156, PI. ix. 3 Zigno (85) p. 3. 



3 Seward (96 2 ) p. 216;- (04) B. p. 135. 



