DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES. 215 



pressed on page 15 of the above-r.anied work, is correct, and tlie plant is 

 nearly allied to Frencla It is perhaps the ancestral form of the living 

 Fivuria, not yet fully differentiated, for the Potomac plant F. parceramosa 

 'las onl}' one leaf on each joint. 



Heer's F. occidcnfnlis from Valle de Lobos, Portugal, does not afford 

 specimens well enough preserved to add to our knowledge of the genus. 

 In his (contributions a la Flor. Fos.s. du P(n"tugal, PI. XT I, Fig. 4, is a good 

 (l(^id like some of the specimens of F. raniosisshna. 



The strikiug resemblance of the Potomac forms, and especially of F. 

 ramosissimn, to Frcnrln confirms Schenk's oi'iginal conclusions, and there 

 seems to be little doubt that Frendopsis is more uearly allied to that genus 

 than to Ephedra, as Ileer thought If the leaves of F. Hohenefjf/eri are 

 really in pairs, then the generic description must read: Leaves one to three 

 on the joints. This would not be incouipatible with a relationship to Fre- 

 nela, for in that genus the leaves are not always in threes, but occur occa- 

 sionally in fours, or even scattered singl}^, as sometimes is the case in Fre- 

 nela australis Hooker. Leaves in fours occur also in F. suhnmbcUata Par- 

 latore. 



Schenk' very correctly calls attention to the resemblance between F. 

 nolienerigeri and Massalongo's Aidarfhrophi/toii, depicted in Flor. Foss. del 

 Monte Colle, etc. There is so strong a resemblance that it is difficult to 

 believe that they belong to different genera. 



F. ramasissima is prol);ibly a better differentiated form in the direction 

 of Frenela than F. parceramosa and F. Hoheneggeri. 



Feenelopsis ramosissima, sp. nov. 



Plates XCV-XCIX : Pliito (;, Figs. 1-3 ; Plato CI, Fi;;. 1. 



Tree or large shrub ; stems seen up to a diameter of 5°'" ; stems and 

 branches originally cylindrical, now from pressure always flat, apparently 

 with a large pith, often appearing to have been hollow: the larger branches 

 sometimes scattered and alternate, but more counnonly in umbel-like 

 whorls containing three to five branches, usually in the larger branches 

 curving upwards ; stems and branches jointed, with joints usually very 



'Die Foss. Pflauzeu der Wernstlorf. Scbichten, p.l5. 



