XLVIIl] 



PITYANTHUS 



395 



evidence of submerged forests and, as we ascend the scale, the records 

 become more legible and the prehistoric 

 merges into the historic era. 



A cone apparently identical with the 

 Spruce Fir (Picea excelsa) found in the Pre- 

 glacial beds on the Norfolk 1 coast (fig. 787) 

 is a relic of the flora which existed in 

 England when the Rhine after receiving 

 4 many large tributaries now separate 

 rivers seems to have flowed across the 

 present bed of the North Sea.' The same 

 species is recorded from Pliocene beds on 

 the Dutch-Prussian frontier, also from the 

 valleys of the Main and Neckar, the speci- 

 mens from the latter locality being referred 

 by Gliick 2 to Picea excelsa var. alpestris. 

 Sernander 3 has discussed the past history 

 of Picea in Scandinavia and quotes records 

 of the occurrence of the genus in other 

 parts of Europe. Similar instances of the 

 wider range of Abietineous genera are given 



by Berry 4 and other authors who have -p 

 J . . J - FIG. 787. Picea excelsa. From 



described Pleistocene plants in North Pre-glacial beds at Mun- 

 America. From the facts at present avail- desley, Norfolk. (After 

 able it would seem that Pinus and allied 



genera were more abundantly represented in the Tertiary and Post- 

 Tertiary floras in Europe than in American strata of the same age. 



PITYANTHUS. Nathorst. 



Pityanthus granulatus (Heer). This species, described by Heer 5 

 from the Patoot (Cretaceous) beds in Greenland as Ophioglossum 

 granulalum and afterwards described by Newberry 6 from the 

 Amboy clays, has recently been identified by Dr Stopes 7 as a long 

 microstrobilus of some Abietineous Conifer, probably a Pinus. 



1 Reid, C. and E. M. (08) PL xv. fig. 147. 2 Gliick (02). 



3 Sernander (93). See also Andersson (10) and W. B. Wright (14) for excellent 

 summaries of Pleistocene history. 



4 Berry (07); (10 3 ); Penhallow (04). 5 Heer (83) PI. LVII. figs. 8. 9. 

 6 Newberry and Hollick (95) PI. ix. figs. 1113. 7 Stopes (II 4 ) text-figs. 1, 2. 



