322 



CUPRESSINEAE 





many specimens recorded both from Jurassic and Cretaceous rock* 

 which differ in no important features from Heer's 

 type (fig. 757). An examination of branches of 

 the recent species Cupressus Lawsoniana shows 

 a considerable difference in the form of -ramifi- 

 cation depending on the development of nume- 

 rous or few lateral shoots, and such differences 

 afford an argument against the use of distinctive 

 names such as B. obesiforme and others adopted by 

 Saporta 1 for Portuguese specimens. Apart from 

 the absence of thornlike branches this species is FIG. 757. Braclnj- 

 hardly distinguishable from B. smnosum. phyllum obesum. 



( After Heer; nat, 



BRACHYOXYLON. Hollick and Jeffrey. size.) 



This generic name was proposed for pieces of wood from the 

 Middle Cretaceous beds in Staten Island originally regarded as that 

 of the plant which bore the foliage-shoots described from the same 

 locality by Hollick and Jeffrey as Brachyophyllum macrocarpum,, 

 but as the result of further study it was recognised that lack of 

 proof of any connexion between wood and shoots necessitated a 

 new genus 2 . 



Brachyoxylon notabile Hollick and Jeffrey. 



The tracheids of the xylem have separate pits usually 11 

 single row, but they are occasionally flattened and very rarely 

 there are two alternate rows of polygonal pits (fig. 758, A). 

 Normally there are no resiniferous cells in the xylem though these 

 occur in wounded specimens. The medullary rays are said to have 

 numerous pits on the radial walls. Jeffrey has described in detail 

 the wound-reactions of Brachyoxylon 3 : fig. 758, B represents part 

 of a transverse section showing a mass of resiniferous parenchyma 

 and a row of resin-canals stretching tangentially from the wounded 

 area. Wood exhibiting the same normal and traumatic features is 

 mentioned by Jeffrey from Martha's Vineyard and the Potomac 

 formation. It is pointed out that Brachyoxylon differs from typical 

 Araucarian wood in the frequent occurrence of circular and separate 

 bordered pits and in the power of developing traumatic resin-canals. 



ed a 



1 Saporta (94) B. p. 176, PL xxxi. 



2 Hollick and Jeffrey (09) B. p. 54, Pis. xm., xiv. 



Jeffrey (06). 



