XLV] PSEUDO-ARAUCARIA 261 



unconvincing specimen of a winged seed figured from Marion's 

 drawing, there would seem to be no valid reason for drawing a 

 distinction between Doliostrobus and Araucarites or for regarding 

 Marion's and Gardner's fossils as intermediate between Araucaria 

 and Agathis. Attention has been called on a previous page 1 to 

 the danger of placing too much confidence in the resemblance of 

 foliage-shoots of fossil specimens to those of recent types, but in 

 this case the presence of cones and scales like those of Araucaria 

 supplies confirmatory evidence. 



Pseudo- Araucaria, Fliche. 



The generic name Pseudo- Araucaria was given by Fliche 2 to 

 several cones from the Lower Cretaceous beds of the Argonne 

 which he described under three specific names, Pseudo- Araucaria 

 Loppinetti, P. major, P. Lamberti. Externally they are similar 

 to those of some recent Araucarias and in shape agree with cones 

 of Cedrus : a stout axis bears deciduous scales with two seeds, the 

 seeds of each pair being separated from one another by a median 

 ridge of the cone-scale which covers them laterally. The seeds 

 appear to bear a relation to the scale similar to that between the 

 single seed and the cone-scale of an Araucaria. The cone-scales 

 are slightly expanded laterally as in the Eutacta section of the 

 recent genus. Fliche's descriptions are unfortunately inadequately 

 illustrated and it is difficult to obtain a very clear impression of 

 the structural features. The most interesting peculiarity of these 

 cones is the occurrence of two seeds in each cone-scale agreeing 

 in their position on the sporophyll with the single seed of Araucaria : 

 the author of the genus regards it as a type intermediate between 

 the Abietineae and the Araucarineae. 



Araucarian cone-scales. 



The question of the lower geological limit of cones or cone- 

 scales of the Araucarian type is one which cannot be settled with 

 any certainty: there are many examples of vegetative organs 

 very similar in habit to Araucaria excelsa and allied species recorded 

 from Triassic, Permian, and to a less extent from Upper Carboni- 

 ferous strata, also others which agree in the broader form of the 



1 See page 162. 



2 Fliche (96) p. 70, PL vi. figs. 35; PI. vn. figs. 1, 2. 



