1910] CURRENT LITERATURE 310 
by VIERHAPPER.'? It is assumed at.the outset that a group whose members 
have in common such striking characters must be monophyletic. The mor- 
phology is confined to the grosser taxonomic characters (but includes the struc- 
ture of the wood), excluding entirely the gametophytic structures, because the 
new system is based upon facts, and the gametophytes are not yet known in all 
the genera, and presumably are not yet worthy*of recognition among the 
established facts. The obvious characters are analyzed and classified as 
primitive and secondary. 
The Cordaitinae are the primitive stock, which during the Carboniferous 
gave rise to the Coniferae, the Taxocupressaceae arising as an offshoot from 
Ginkgoinae, and the Abietaceae coming directly from the Cordaitinae. The 
Taxocupressaceae include the Taxoideae and Taxodioideae arising independ- 
ently from the Ginkgo stock during the Carboniferous, and the Cupressoideae 
arising during the Trias from the Taxodioideae. The Abietaceae include the 
Araucarioideae coming directly from the Cordaites stock, and the Cunning- 
hamioideae and Abietoideae arising from the araucarian stock during the 
Trias 
Without commenting upon the scheme itself, it would seem to the reviewer 
that so much is now known about the gametophytes, and that so much of 
this comparatively recent knowledge is extremely significant, that it must be 
considered in any classification which claims to represent the phylogeny of 
a group.—CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
Cretaceous pine leaves.—In the communication cited the authors describe 
the anatomy of a species of Pinus and a supposed species of Prepinus, from the 
pape Cretaceous of Hokkaido, Japan.*3 The pine leaf, denoted by the specific 
name P. yezoensis, from the description given is not very different in struc- 
ture from the living P. Bungeana of China, since it is a soft pine with a single 
foliar bundle and apparently a three-leaved fascicle. In type it clearly differs 
from pine leaves of the Lower Cretaceous described by the reviewer, in 
g a degenerate transfusion sheath, a well-marked endodermis, and 
infolded ete cells. In other words, it is practically indistinguishable 
in its general structure from the leaf of a living pine. Interestingly enough, 
in a communication from the reviewer’s laboratory, shortly to appear, it will 
be shown that the wood of a pine from the American Upper Cretaceous like- 
wise resembles more nearly the secondary xylem of living pines than that 
of pines from the Lower Cretaceous. It will thus apparently be possible to 
distinguish between these two horizons by means of the nature of the pine 
flora. The Prepinus described, P. japonicus (why not P. japonica ?), appat- 
‘? VieRHAPpPER, F., Entwurf eines neuen Systemes der Coniferen. Abhandl. 
K. K. Zool.-Bot. t. Gesell, Wien 5:1-56. 1910. 
*3 Stopes, Marre C., and KersHaw, E. The anatomy of cretaceous pine 
leaves. Annals of Boleay 24:395-402. pls. 27, IgIo. ; 
