XLVl] THUITES; CTJPRESSITES 305 



THUITES. Brongniart emend. 



As stated on a previous page it is proposed to limit this name to 

 fossils affording good evidence of close affinity to the recent genus 

 Thuya. Among the few examples that appear to fulfil this con- 

 dition are those described as Thuya occidentalis L. succinea Goepp. ^ 

 and Biota orientalis Endl. succinea Goepp. ^ from the Oligocene 

 amber deposits on the Baltic coast. SchlechtendaP records 

 specimens from Oligocene beds at Weimar, consisting of shoots 

 with opposite pairs of leaves, on which a resin-canal is seen below 

 the apex, and the remains of male flowers, which he names Thuya 

 occidentalis var. thuringica. 



CUPRESSITES. Goeppert. 

 Cupressites MacHenryi Baily. 



This name was given* to a piece of shoot of Cupressus-like 

 habit from the Eocene beds of Antrim. Baily's figure, which 

 Gardner says is inaccurate, shows the small scale-leaves as spiral, 

 but the specimens subsequently described by Gardner^ from 

 the same locality leave no doubt as to the decussate arrangement 

 of the foliage. Gardner adopts the name Cupressus Pritchardi on 

 the assumption that the fossil wood from Lough Neagh described 

 by Goeppert® as Pinites Pritchardi belongs to the species which 

 furnished the Antrim specimens : the wood, subsequently referred 

 to Cupressinoxylon'' , affords a typical example of that genus as 

 is clearly shown by the photographs reproduced in fig. 715 (p. 188), 

 but there is no proof of any connexion between it and the branches 

 from the Antrim leaf-beds. The shoots are characterised by 

 their slender pinnately arranged branchlets with small decussate 

 leaves, and the cones, about 14 mm. long, bear 10 hexagonal 

 scales of the Cupressus type very similar to those of Cupressites 

 taxiformis. No seeds were found attached to the cone-scales. 

 The abundance of specimens in the Irish beds indicates that this 

 Cupressineous species was a common tree in the forests which 



1 Goeppert and Menge (83) A. p. 43, PI. xv. figs. 199—206. 



2 Ibid. p. 42, PI. XV. figs. 180—198. 



3 SohlechtendaJ (02) Pis. I., n. 



* Baily, W..H. (69) p. 361, PI. xv. fig. 5. 



5 Gardner (86) p. 82, PI. xvi. figs. 8, 9; PI. xvm. fig. 1; PI. xix. 



« Goeppert (50) p. 220. ' Kraus in Schimper (72) A. p. 376. 



S. IV 20 



