XLVl] BRACHYPHYLLT7M 325 



same name was given by Tenison- Woods 1 to a form of Brachy- 

 phyttum from Queensland in 1883, the year in which Lesquereux 

 published the name Thuites crassus 2 for the Dakota specimens 

 afterwards transferred by him to Brachyphyllum. Neither author 

 gave an illustration of the type-specimen and the Australian type 

 is still unfigured, but Lesquereux's type is illustrated in the Dakota 

 Flora. It would therefore seem reasonable to retain the specific 

 name crassum rather than to adopt the designation macrocarpum 

 revived by Hollick and Jeffrey. This species was found in the 

 Middle Cretaceous beds in Staten Island in a condition which 

 enabled Hollick and Jeffrey to supply important information with 

 regard to anatomical characters. In their preliminary account 3 of 

 the foliage-shoots these authors included in Brachyphyllum macro- 

 carpum some wood exhibiting well-defined characters suggestive 

 of Araucarian affinities, and Jeffrey 4 in another contribution speaks 

 of the wood as that of Brachyphyllum. In a subsequent description 

 of the Staten Island material the authors 5 state that they are no 

 longer in a position to affirm that the fragments of wood belong 

 to Brachyphyllum. This change of view is important as it was from 

 the characters of the wood that some of the arguments in favour of 

 an Araucarian affinity of the species B. macrocarpum were derived. 

 The structural features of the foliage-shoots alone, though in some 

 respects agreeing with those characteristic of recent Araucarineae, 

 are not known in sufficient completeness to settle definitely the 

 precise position of the species. 



The foliage-shoots have triangular, appressed, leaves identical 

 in the form of the lamina with that in many Jurassic species of 

 Brachyphyllum (fig. 758, G), and in the method of branching as 

 also in the shape of the ultimate branchlets the specimens agree 

 with typical representatives of the genus. The branches have a 

 large pith containing nests of sclerous cells: external to the vascular 

 tissue is a ring of resin-canals and a deep-seated periderm, beyond 

 which are other canals belonging to the adnate leaves. Strands of 

 stereome occur immediately below the epidermis and these are 

 responsible for the longitudinal striations which often characterise 



1 Tenison-Woods (83). 2 Lesquereux (83) p. 32. 



3 Hollick and Jeffrey (06) p. 200. 4 Jeffrey (06). 



5 Hollick and Jeffrey (09) B. p. 55. 



