CH. XLVIl] CALLITRITES 337 



slender branches of Juniperus, Thuya, and other Cupressineae. 

 Even when cones are preserved there is some danger of confusion 

 with fruits of certain Dicotyledons, e.g. Lagerstroemia macrocarpa 

 (Lythraceae). In view of fche difficulties of precise determination 

 the most convenient course is to adopt the generic name Callitrites 

 in a comprehensive sense without as a rule attempting to assign the 

 fossil to one of the existing genera of the Callitrineae. 



CALLITRITES. Endlicher. 



Endlicher 1 employed the generic names Widdringtonites, Calli- 

 trites, Frenelites, and Actinostrobites , but the material seldom 

 justifies such discrimination. The name Actinostrobites was pro- 

 posed in the first instance for some cones described by Bowerbank 2 

 from the London Clay as Cupressites globosus and C. elongatus but 

 Gardner 3 , who examined the original specimens, is sceptical as to 

 their connexion with the Callitrineae. Ettingshausen 4 described a 

 small cone from Miocene beds in Carinthia as Actinostrobus mio- 

 cenica on the ground that there appear to be traces of scales at the 

 base of each of the six small linear valves of the cone. The specimen 

 is too imperfect to be determined with any accuracy. It is im- 

 possible to express any considered opinion with regard to the 

 validity of the numerous Tertiary records of Callitris and Widdring- 

 tonia without access to the actual material, though many of the 

 illustrations lend strong support to the identification of the speci- 

 mens as examples of some Callitrineous type. Despite the imper- 

 fection of many of the records there can be no doubt as to the 

 former occurrence of representatives of the Callitrineae in Tertiary 

 floras in Europe. 



The pinnately branched sterile shoots referred to Widdring- 

 tonites keuperianus Heer 5 from the Trias of Switzerland and 

 Germany bear a close resemblance to some forms of Walchia and 

 there is no sound reason for assigning the species to the Calli- 

 trineae. Saporta 6 described fragments of branches from the Lower 

 Lias of France as examples of Heer's type, but in this case also no 



1 Endlicher (47) p. 271. 2 Bowerbank (40) p. 52, PI. x. 



3 Gardner (86) p. 20. 



4 Ettingshausen (72) p. 164, PL n. figs. 912. 



5 Heer (65) A. p. 52, fig. 31; Schiitze (01) PL x. ; Schenk in Schimper and Schenk 

 (90) A. p. 311. 6 Saporta (84) PL 201, fig. 1. 



s. iv 



