CONIFERALES (PINACEAE) 307 



proved, and the strongest evidence for such ancient araucarians is 

 the abundance of mesozoic araucarians. The imjjression that the 

 Araucarineae are the oldest of the Coniferales seems to have arisen, 

 therefore, from the abundance of the Araucarioxylon ty|)e of wood 

 in the Paleozoic; but since it is found that this paleozoic wood prob- 

 ably all belongs to Cordaitales (p. 165), the evidences of paleozoic 

 araucarians look very scanty. Scott (160) has expressed the judg- 

 ment that " the direct paleontological evidence, apart from theoretical 

 considerations, is favorable to the opinion that the Araucarineae have 

 the longest fossil history, probably overlapping that of the typically 

 paleozoic order Cordaiteae." 



The general conclusion in regard to the antiquity of the four tribes 

 of Pinaceae, therefore, is that the xA.bietineae and the Araucarineae are 

 much the oldest, both being certainly represented throughout the 

 Mesozoic, and probably in the Permian, with no sure evidence as to 

 which of the two is the older. The Taxodineae and Cupressineae 

 are probably not older than the Cretaceous, and are recognized with 

 certainty chiefly from the Tertiary. 



Recently Miss Stopes and Fujii (169) have uncovered the first 

 glimpse of a cretaceous flora of northern Japan, the well-preserved 

 material permitting sections. The most common plant was a gymno- 

 sperm, whose vegetative structures were named Yezonia. Constantly 

 associated with its remains there were strobili, named Yezostrohus, 

 and strongly suspected of belonging to it, but not found in actual 

 organic connection. The small concrescent leaves suggest the Cupres- 

 sineae, but they are in a close spiral and differ in structure from those 

 of any other gymnosperms, having a number of vascular bundles 

 and broad bands of transfusion tissue. Its strobili, if Yezostrohus 

 belongs to it, were composed of scales bearing single seeds in the 

 middle, whose massive integument was cycadean (three-layered, and 

 with vascular strands in the outer and inner fleshy layers), but whose 

 nucellus was free to the base (fig. 45). This combination of char- 

 acters has induced the authors to suggest the establishment of a 

 new family of Coniferales, to be known as the Yezoniaceae. There 

 is thus evidence of an abundant cretaceous gymnospcrm flora in a 

 region which has preserved a remarkable series of "endemic" genera 

 of gymnosperms, and whose fossil flora may add \cry materially to 



