306 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [OCTOBER 
which is a very abundant Upper Cretaceous type, and which has been 
recently shown by Hotiicx and Jrerrrey to be unrelated to Frenelopsis.’ 
Although fruiting specimens have not been found, the position of 
the genus in the Cupressineae is not disputed at the present time, 
although at one time HEER argued for an affinity with Ephedra. The 
genus may be defined as follows: 
Shrubs or trees with cylindrical, jointed, monopodial stems and branches, 
the latter of which may be alternate, apparently in a single plane, or whorl, 
often of large size, stems up to 5 cm. in diameter having been found in the 
Virginia area. Leaves much reduced, somewhat variable in outline, in general 
triangular with a broad base and an acute apex, squamiform, appressed, one 
to four at the nodes, decussate. Internodes variable in length, but 
longer in the apparently annual shoots, which were more or less deciduous 
and functioned as leaves, since the fine longitudinal striae with which their 
surface is ornamented turn out to be rows of stomata in certain of the species 
which have been examined microscopically. 
It is for the purpose of describing the latter characters of this inter- 
esting American Lower Cretaceous species that the following brief note 
is published. 
Frenelopsis ramosissima ranges from the bottom to the top of the 
Lower Cretaceous in the Maryland-Virginia region to which it is thus 
far confined. It is by far the most abundant form at the celebrated 
plant locality of Fredericksburg, Va. The coarse arkosic sandy clays of 
this age are sometimes packed with the remains of this species, with its 
crowded twigs and short internodes generally completely flattened, and 
with all of the tissues gone except the epidermis, which must have been 
very tough and coriaceous in life, since the preservation of these forms 
was largely due to its resistant nature. The cuticle of the type of the 
genus, F, Hoheneggeri, was studied by ZEILLER and described in 1882,° and 
six years later VELENovSKy described? the epidermal features of F. 
bohemica. The stomata in these species were found to consist of usually 
four cells, although sometimes five or even six were present. These 
guard cells are symmetrically arranged, the opening between them being 
approximately in the form of a narrow-rayed star. According to the 
former author, they ally these forms with the existing species of Cal- 
7 Mem. N.Y. Bot. Gard. 23:6. 19009. 
8 Obs. sur quelques cuticules fossiles. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. VI. 13:231- pe 
1882; Eléments de paléobotanique 274. fig. 196. 1900. 
° Ueber einige neue Pflanzenformen der béhmischen Kreideformation. Sitz. 
K. Bohm. Gesell. Wiss. Prag 1888: 590. figs. 1-3, 10. 
