240 THE POTOMAC OK YOUNGER MESOZOIC FLORA. 



no leafy twigs, as in the specimens given in PI. CXVI, Figs. 1, 2. The 

 cones when unripe are compact, with close-appi"essed scales, but with age 

 the scales diverge. 



Heer^ describes his genus Cyparissidiiim as having an oval strobile, 

 furnished with numerous scales, which are spirally arranged on the axis, 

 imbricated, coriaceous, and rounded, loosely spreading at the apex, mucro- 

 nate, etc.; seed one under each scale and rounded ? ; leaves alternate, imbri- 

 cated, and appressed. Heer bases his conclusions as to the character of the 

 seed on the imprint of a rounded object under a scale similar to those that 

 he attributes to Cyparissld'mm (See PL XIX, Fig. 11.) 



While Athrotaxopsis has a number of the characters of Cyparissidium, 

 the diflferences are too important to allow its being united with the latter 

 genus; the character of the cone is essentially different. Athrotaxopsis in 

 many features, both of the foliage and the cones, is strikingl}- like the liv- 

 ing genus Athrotaxis, and perhaps may be regarded as an ancestral form of 

 this genus. The main distinction is in the single seed under each scale. It 

 has also, in the character of the leaves and branches, points in common with 

 JEchinostrohus and Saporta's genvis PaJccocyparis. It is evidently a compre- 

 hensive type. The great length and slenderness of the ultimate twigs make 

 it probable that they were pendulous. 



Athrotaxopsis CxRAndis, sp. nov. 



Plate CXIV, Figs. 1-3; Plate CXVI, Figs. 1-4 ; Plate CXXXV, Fig. 10. 



Trees or shrubs, with strong principal branches, bearing cones on the 

 lower portions, and in the upper portions leafy branchlets alone; stems seen 

 1"" thick, with a length of SO*"" and an expanse of over 25"™, the terminal 

 portions not being preserved. Cones as given in the generic description, 

 leafy stems copiously branched in an alternate manner, the branches being 

 crowded and all in the same plane. The ultimate twigs are long, compai'a- 

 tively strong, and cord-like, and were probably pendulous, mostly un- 

 branched, or sometimes dividing dichotomously ; leaves close appressed, 

 elliptical when young and acute at their tips; rhombic when old, and 

 crowded, thin, slightly keeled on the summit. 



' Flor. Foss. Arctlca, vol. 3, pt. H, p. 74. 



