438 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [December 



Fig. 10 shows the structure of the pith in our species. It will be 

 seen that it is traversed at inten^als by diaphragms of sclerenchymatous 

 cells, which strongly recall those to be found in Abies, Picea, and 

 certain hard pines. The stone cells are arranged in longitudinal 

 roAvs, as if they had been formed by the transverse divisions of a 

 horizontal series of mother cells, as has been described in certain 

 'Calamites and Equiseta. Fig. ii illustrates the character of the 

 radial pitting in our species. It wiU be seen by examination of the 

 pits on the left of the figure that some of them are in intimate contact 

 and are mutually flattened, in the manner characteristic of the radial 

 pitting of Araiicarioxylon Kraus. There is a clear distinction from 

 the typical condition in Araucarioxylon, however, in the fact that not 

 all the pits are mutually flattened, but some of them are rounded in 

 contour, as in the wood of the Abietineae. The pitting in our species 

 is thus transitional between the types characteristic of Araucarioxylon 

 and Pityoxylon or Cedroxylon^ In the general memoir on the Coni- 

 fers of the Androvette Cretaceous deposits, it has been proposed that 

 woods of a type transitional between the modes of radial pitting found 

 in the Araucarineae and Abietineae should come under a new genus 

 Brachyoxylon, taking the w^ood of the genus Brachyphyllum as the 

 type. Our present species, however, can scarcely be put under 

 Brachyoxylon, since in the latter the terminal and horizontal walls 

 of the ray cells are smooth as in the living Agathis and Araucaria 

 and their near allies of the Mesozoic. In the species under discussion, 

 by contrast the terminal and horizontal walls of the ray cells are both 

 strongly pitted, as is typically the case in the Abietineae. If other 

 species of lignites are subsequently discovered which agree wdth that 

 under discussion in their essential features, it w^ill probably be well to 

 establish the name Araucariopityoxylon or some convenient abbrevia- 

 tion of it for their reception^ So long as the type is represented by a 

 single lignitic species, however, the name Araucariopitys will suffice 

 both for the branches and the wood. On the other hand, if it is proved 

 subsequently that Araucariopitys represents the branches of Czekanow- 

 skia, as we strongly suspect to be the case, both names w^ill have 

 to be merged in Czekanowskia. 



In jig. 12 is shown a highly magnified view^ of the radial pitting 

 of the species under discussion. The field is so chosen as to include 



