XL] 



STEKOEACHIS 



57 



lepida (= Gmkgoites sihirica) and described by him under that 

 name^. Similar specimens are correlated by Heer with other 

 species of Ginkgo leaves, and Ginkgo grandiflora^ Heer is repre- 

 sented by supposed male flowers only. Similar though rather 

 larger examples are described by Heer from Jurassic beds in 

 Siberia as Antholiihus Schmidtianus^ and regarded as male flowers 

 of some member of the Ginkgoales, possibly Phoenicopsis ; what- 

 ever the parent-plant may have been it is clearly a type closely 

 allied to those he refers to different species of Ginkgo. Fig. 657, B 



Fig. 657. Stenorachis lepida. A, from Amurland; B, C, from Afghanistan. 

 {A, B, nat. size.) 



shows a specimen of Stenorachis lepida from Jurassic beds in 

 Afghanistan* which is undoubtedly of the same type as Heer's 

 European examples. One of Heer's specimens from the Jurassic 

 beds of Amurland^ is shown in fig. 657, A : a curved and fairly 

 stout axis bears numerous. spiraUy disposed, appendages with 

 slightly expanded ends which in a few cases are more or less 

 definitely bilobed. No remains of seeds or microsporangia are 

 preserved, but the swollen ends of the appendages suggest the 

 former presence of some reproductive organs: some of the ap- 

 pendages are bilobed as in the Afghan example. 



Heer states that some of his specimens bear 2 — 3 pollen-sacs 

 at the tips of the appendages, but the published figures afford no 



1 Heer (77) ii. PI. xi. ' Heer (82) A. p. 18, PI. vi. figs. 1—6. 



' Ibid. p. 21, PI. IX. * Seward (12) p. 23, PI. iv. fig. 52. 



5 Seward (12») p. 28, PI. i. fig. 8. 



