XXXin] TITANOPHYLLirM 283 



A specimen described by Schenk^ as Eolvrion primigenium 

 from Lower Cretaceous beds in the Carpathian mountains closely 

 resembles in habit a foliage-shoot of Poa-Cordaites ; the leaves 

 are narrow and linear with obtuse apices and attached, apparently, 

 in a close spiral. Schenk assigns the plant to the Monocotyledons, 

 but its systematic position must be left unsettled. 



The list of Mesozoic specimens resembhng Cordaites leaves 

 might be extended. Apart from some Triassic and Ehaetic 

 examples which may well be Cordaitalean, there are many others 

 which, though similar in form and venation to Cordaites, are in 

 all probability more closely related to Agathis and other genera; 

 the species Dammarites Bayeri recently described by Zeiller* 

 from the Upper Cretaceous of Bulgaria is a case in point. The 

 Araucarian character of the wood of Cordaites precludes any 

 satisfactory discrimination between Mesozoic Araucarian stems 

 and those of Cordaitalean species, at least in the case of such 

 material as is usually available. 



Titanophyllum. Eenault. 



Titanophyllum Grand'Euryi Eenault. The remarkable leaves 

 on which this genus and species are founded^ were discovered 

 in the Commentry coalfield; they occur as detached specimens 

 and cannot be correlated with any known stem. Eenault suggests 

 that the Autun stems referred to Col/poxylon may have borne 

 the Titanophyllum leaves, but this correlation rests only on the 

 dimensions of the stems and the occurrence of transversely 

 elongated scars on the surface. The lamina is thick and coriaceous, 

 70 — 75 cm. long and 20 — 25 cm. in breadth ; the veins are parallel 

 but not branched ; numerous longitudinal striations on the upper 

 surface indicate the presence of hypodermal stereome-strands ; 

 stomata are abundant on the lower surface and the more or less 

 rectangular cells in the neighbourhood of the stomata appear to 

 be papillose (fig. 485, A, B). The distal region of the lamina 



1 Sohenk (71) p. 20, PI. vn. fig. 4. 



2 Zeiller (05") p. 17, PL vn. fige. 8—11. 



» Renault and Zeiller (90) A. p. 627, PI. LXix. figs. 1—4. 



