VII] THE ARAUCARIA FAMILY 119 



west coast of Greenland have yielded fragments which 

 may be referred with some hesitation to the genus 

 Araucaria. 



A few words must be added in regard to the recent 

 discovery by Professor Jeffrey and Dr Hollick of some 

 very interesting Cretaceous specimens in New Jersey 

 of well-preserved cone-scales and foliage shoots of 

 extinct plants closely related to the existing species 

 of Agathis (51). The American fossils are particularly 

 valuable because their preservation admits of micro- 

 scopical examination of the tissues. In Cretaceous 

 rocks of Staten Island and in other localities on the 

 eastern border of the northern United States, kite- 

 shaped seed-bearing scales almost identical in form 

 with those of recent species of Agathis are fairly 

 common fossils. Similar specimens have long been 

 known from Tertiary rocks in western Greenland. 

 In the case of some of the American examples each 

 scale bore three seeds instead of a single seed in 

 living species: on account of this difference Prof. 

 Jeffrey and Dr Hollick have adopted a distinct 

 generic name, Protodmnmara. 



The foregoing sketch is necessarily far from com- 

 plete, but it may serve as aii illustration of the light 

 which is thrown on the past history of recent plants 

 by the investigation of the relics of ancient floras. 

 The family Araucarieae now represented by a small 

 number of species which, with the exception of the 



