Maryland Geological Survey 393 



The geological range of BracliypTiyllum like its geographical range i° 

 very great. The earliest recorded occurrence is that of a very doubtful 

 species described by Peistmantel ^ from the Permo-Carboniferous of 

 New South Wales (Newcastle beds). The genus reappears in the Upper 

 Triassic, becoming prominent during the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous, 

 and dies out during the first half of the Upper Cretaceous. 



Recently discovered structural material has enabled HoUick and 

 Jeffrey ^ to show that in the Upper Cretaceous species Brachyphyllum 

 macrocarpum ISFewb., the leaves are attached by practically the whole 

 ventral surface, only the margins -being free and these sometimes overlap. 

 They refer this species to the subfamily Araucarieas on the evidence 

 of the branched leaf trace, the mucilaginous contents of the resin canals, 

 the Araucarioxylon type of flattened and alternating bordered pits, the 

 lateral pits of the ray cells, and the absence in the phloem of regularly 

 alternating rows of hard bast fibres. It would seem to the writer that 

 while these characters show a certain relationship with the modern 

 Araucaria stock there are constant differences which demand the refer- 

 ence of this species to a separate family particularly as forms con- 

 forming entirely to the Araucarian type in anatomy, vegetative, and 

 reproductive structures, are present at this same horizon and also at 

 much earlier horizons. 



Brachyphyllum crassicaule Fontaine 

 Plate LXIY, Figs. 1-6 



Brachyphyllum crassicaule Fontaine, 1890, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xv, 

 1890, p. 221, pi. c, fig. 4; pi. cix, figs. 1-7; pi. ex, figs. 1-3; pi. cxi, figs. 

 6, 7; pi. cxii, figs. 6-8; pi. clxviii, fig. 9. 



Brachyphyllum crassicaule Fontaine, 1906, in Ward, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., 

 vol. xlviii, 1905, pp. 529, 557, pi. cxiii, fig. 6. 



Brachyphyllum crassicaule Berry, 1911, Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus., vol. xl, p. 305. 



Description. — "Trees with large branches, irregularly pinnate; on 

 the penultimate twigs the ultimate branches lower and next to the 

 main branch subdivide pinnately into branches; those higher are un- 



^ Feistmantel, Palseont., suppl. iii, 1878, p. 97, pi. vii, figs. 3-6; pi. xvii. 

 ^ Loc. cit. 



