314 CUPRESSINEAE [CH. 



survival of a type of Conifer which was widely spread in Jurassic 

 floras. 



Athrotaxites lycopodioides Unger (= Echinostrobus Sternbergii 



Schimp.). 



Reference has already been made to the vegetative characters 

 of this Upper Jurassic species from Solenhofen 1 . In the crowded 

 imbricate leaves and in the blunt stiff branches it agrees very 

 closely with Athrotaxis cupressoides : the globular cones (fig. 753, 

 C), though incompletely preserved, also exhibit in the comparatively 

 small number of cone-scales and their thick spinous distal ends a 

 distinct similarity to those of the recent genus. Nothing is known 

 of the seeds. 



Athrotaxites Ungeri Halle. 



This species 2 , founded on fertile specimens from the San Martin 

 flora of Patagonia, probably of Upper Jurassic or Wealden age, 

 is practically identical with Unger's type : the branches are more 

 slender and the globular cones, 10 15 mm. in diameter, appear to 

 be of the same type. The cone-scales have a cuneate base and a 

 thick spathulate distal end prolonged into a short pointed apex 

 (fig. 753, A, B) ; the thickening of the scales close behind the apex 

 recalls the form characteristic of recent cones (cf. fig. 684, N, p. 116). 

 As Halle says, the vegetative features (fig. 753, D) of this and t 

 preceding type are those of Brachyphyllum. 



lh< 



In his memoir on British Eocene Gymnosperms Gardner 3 

 referred to Athrotaxis some of the foliage-shoots and cones from 

 Bovey Tracey in Devonshire which had previously been included 

 in Sequoia Couttsiae Heer : the reasons for the change of genus are 

 by no means adequate. Mr and Mrs Clement Reid 4 in their recent 

 investigation of the Bovey Tracey material, which they refer to 

 an Upper Oligocene age, made a careful examination of numerous 

 Sequoia fragments including a comparison of fossil cuticular 

 membranes with the epidermis of both Sequoia and Athrotaxis 

 leaves : they were unable to discover any evidence of the presence 

 of representatives of the latter genus. Gardner also assigns some 



1 See page 312; Unger (49). 2 Halle (13) p. 40, Pis. n. v. 



3 Gardner (86) p. 90, PL vi. figs. 19; PI. x. figs. 69. 



4 Reid, C. and E. M. Reid (10) p. 171. 



