Maryland Geological Survey 397 



similitude praesertim cum strobilo juvoni Araucarise brasilianae negari 

 non protest/^ 



Schimper^ restricts the term to foliage remains, referring the cones 

 and cone-scales described as Araucarites previous to his time to the 

 genus Araucaria to which many of them are undoubtedly related. Sub- 

 sequent workers have used the genus Araucarites entirely as a form- 

 genus for remains of foliage, cones and cone-scales which seem to be 

 more nearly related to the Araucariese than to any other existing sub- 

 family of the Coniferales, a relation which because of the inconclusive 

 nature of the remains cannot be demonstrated. As such a form-genus 

 Araucarites has proved to be a most convenient repository for single 

 seeded cone-scales and large spherical cones as well as for impressions of 

 foliage resembling that of the modern araucarias. Many species have 

 been described, ranging in age from the Permian through the Tertiary. 

 These are especially abundant in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. 



Fontaine took up this genus in MonogTaph xv for two classes of 

 remains from the Virginia Potomac. These embraced an obscure cone 

 from the lower Potomac (Patuxent) named Araucarites virginicus, with 

 which he subsequently correlated other remains from higher horizons 

 (Patapsco) which turn out to be those of Finns vernonensis, and de- 

 tached cone-scales named Araucarites aquiensis which are found to be 

 characteristic remains in the later Potomac or Patapsco deposits, and 

 as such possess a quite considerable stratigraphic value. 



Professor Fontaine has described three species of Araucaria based on 

 the remains of foliage from the Potomac Group. These are omitted 

 from the present work because of their extremely indefinite character. 

 The first is Araucaria podocarpoides ^ described from the Patapsco for- 

 mation at Brooke, Va., which resembles somewhat the foliage in the 

 Golyrnbea section of Araucaria. This was based upon a single indistinct 

 fragment which in all probability is a poorly preserved twig of Nageiopsis 

 zamioides. 



"■ Schimper, Pal. Veget, tome ii, 1870, p. 252. 



= Fontaine, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xv, 1890, p. 249, pi. Ixxxvi, fig. 4. 



