400 Systematic Paleontology 



single-seeded as indicated on the diagrammatic sketch that accom- 

 panies the figure of this species and the seeds were large and trnncate- 

 spatulate in outline. It is assumed from the analogy furnished by 

 Araucaria Jeffreyi Berry * from the lower part of the Upper Cretaceous 

 that a more or less prominent ligule served to enclose the seed. The 

 lateral margins of the scales are winged, but- the wings are stiff and 

 ligneous and it is the flutings of these wings due to drying which causes 

 the scales to appear to have borne more than a single, medianly located 

 seed. This appearance can be exactly matched in modern Araucaria 

 cone-scales. The distal margin of the scale has disappeared in the 

 fossil so that this part of the diagram together with the central spur 

 must be regarded as hypothetical. 



It seems evident, that the cones of the ancestral forms of the Arau- 

 cariege had already, as early as the Lower Cretaceous, acquired the habit 

 and morphology which distinguish the modern members of this some- 

 what isolated family. 



Occurrence. — Patapsco Formation. Widewater, Virginia. 



Collection. — Johns Hopkins University. 



. Family PINACEAE 

 Subfamily ABIETEAE 



Genus PINUS Linne 

 [Sp. PL, 1753, p. 1000] 



Modern members of this genus are the dominant conifers of the 

 northern hemisphere with about seventy species usually forming vast 

 forest areas. There are considerable differences of opinion at the 

 present time among morphologists as to the relative antiquity of the 

 various members of the order Coniferales, the older view that the 

 Abieteffi were a highly specialized and relatively modern type being 

 questioned by Jeffrey and others. It would seem, however, that the 

 old view not only has the fossil record exclusively in its favor but many 

 morphological arguments to substantiate it. 



^ Berry, BulL Torrey Bot. Club, voL xxxv, 1908, p. 258, pL xvi. 



