336 Systematic Paleontology 



infima basi dichotomis, dehinc simplicibus, erectis, parallelis, apicem 

 versus convergentibus." Three score or more species have since been 

 described, some of them coming from strata as late as the Tertiary. 

 Post-Mesozoic forms which have been referred to this genus are of very 

 doubtful propriety, however, since they probably represent fragmentary 

 remains of monocotyledons in no wise related to the Mesozoic types. 



The axis is usually slender and the leaflets are somewhat irregularly 

 placed. They vary greatly in size and outline and are many veined, 

 the veins not converging apically to any extent in extremely narrow- 

 leafed forms. Leaflets usually found detached, and hence probably 

 deciduous. 



The genus is usually included in the Cycadacese, although some authors 

 have been inclined to include it among the Araucariese.'' It is wide- 

 spread and more or less abundant type from the Triassic to the Upper 

 Cretaceous, and may possibly include unallied forms, the character of the 

 material, however, not admitting of as much precision in determinations 

 as would be desirable. 



Podozamites was not an especially important element in the flora of 

 the Potomac Group, and what specimens have been found are frag- 

 mentary and poorly defined. They have been confused with both 

 Zamites and Nageiopsis in the past, and are, it must be confessed, dis- 

 tinguishable with difficulty. Undue specific differentiation is unde- 

 sirable, and it is very doubtful if the eleven species which Saporta (1894) 

 recognizes from the Mesozoic of Portugal could be recognized a second 

 time even by their describer. 



Podozamites in^quilateralis (Fontaine) Berry 

 Plate LIII, Fig. 1 



Nageiopsis ohtusifolia Fontaine,* 1890, Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xv, 



1889, p. 200, pi. Ixxxv, fig. 7. 

 Nageiopsis incequilateralis Fontaine, 1890, Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xv, 



1889, p. 200, pi. Ixxxv, fig. 6. 



^ Seward, Jurassic FL, pt. i, 1900, p. 241. 



* The specific name oMusifolia cannot be used for a species of Podozamites, 

 as tliere has been quasi use of this combination by Heer, Handl. Kongl. Sven. 

 Vet. Akad. (Fl. Foss. Arct., Band iv, Abth. i), 1876, p. 39, pi. viii, fig. 6. 



