f 



ARAUCARIOPITYS, A NEW GENUS OF ARAUCARIANS 



Edward C. Jeffrey 



(with plates xxvtii-xxx) 



Among the coniferous remains discovered in the Cretaceous 

 deposits of the Androvette pit, Kreischer\ille, Staten Island, are 

 certain leafless twigs, bearing spirally arranged scars. In most cases 

 the twigs in question are decorticated as well as deprived of their 

 appendages; in fact, in all the best-preserved material this is the 

 case. An examination of the internal structure of these remains 

 showed that they were Araucarian in their affinities; but possessed 

 deciduous shoots, similar to those occurring in Pinus. The deciduous 



shoots seem to have been of seasonal duration only. The branches 

 of the type described above were found in association with Impres- 

 sions of the deciduous leaf-fascicles of Czekanowskia, a supposed but 

 doubtful representative of the Ginkgoales. It is not improbable that 

 the two sorts of remains belong to each other, although it is impossible 

 to more than infer that such is the case at the present time, 



^ig- I represents a transverse section through a rather well-pre- 

 served stem of our species, which we propose to call Araucariopitys 

 americana, for reasons to be stated later. The lower right-hand por- 

 tion of the section is in a bad state of presentation. There are two 

 marked indentations of the surface of the decorticated stem; these 

 mark the positions of two deciduous leafy shoots. The indentation on 

 the extreme right of the figure occurs in the less well-preserved region, 

 so that the topography of the relation of the deciduous shoot to the 

 supporting axis is not clear. The indentation on the upper left-hand 

 part of the surface of the stem corresponds to a short shoot, which is 

 not cut axlally by the plane of section. In the well-preserved part of 

 the wood it is obvious that there is but a single annual ring present. 

 A noteworthy feature of the wood is the presence of a tangential row 

 of traumatic resin canals. These traumatic canals are very common 



No. 

 435] 



' Contributions from the Phanerogamic Laboratories of Harvard University, 

 II. 



[Botanical Gazette, vol. 44 



