312 CTJPRESSINEAE i^^' 



specimens previously figured by Sternberg as Caulerpites. The 

 specimen in the Munich Museum on which the type-species Athro- 

 taxites lycopodioides was founded was examined and re-figured by 

 Schimperi ^^d by Saporta (fig. 753, C)^ the former author 

 substituted for Athrotaxites a new genus Echinostrobus in order to 

 avoid the implication of relationship with Athrotaxis which he 

 was not prepared to accept, and without adequate reason altered 

 Unger's specific name lycopodioides to Sternbergii. Saporta, who 

 believed Unger's type to be intermediate between Athrotaxis 

 and Cryptomeria as regards the features of the cones, retained 

 Schimper's designation Echinostrobus Sternbergii. Unger^ in sub- 

 sequent accounts of Solenhofen plants extended the application of 

 Athrotaxites to sterile shoots, and this course was also followed by 

 Thiselton-Dyer* who expressed agreement with Unger as regards 

 the resemblance of the fossil cones to those of the recent genus. 

 In accordance with the principle advocated on a previous page it 

 is suggested that Unger's generic name should be retained only 

 for specimens which afford evidence, other than mere resemblance 

 of foliage-shoots, of affinity to the recent genus Athrotaxis : this 

 use of Unger's term has recently been adopted by Halle^. Most 

 of the sterile specimens referred to Athrotaxites by Unger and other 

 authors should be transferred to Brachyphyllum. 



Athrotaxopsis Fontaine. 



Fontaine* instituted this name for some fertile Coniferous 

 shoots from the Potomac formation similar in habit to species in- 

 cluded by Saporta in his genus Palaeocyparis and to the genus 

 Thu.tes but bearing cones different from those of Athrotaxites 

 lycopodioides. Berry' subsequently reduced the number of Fon- 

 taine's species and pointed out that some of his specimens are 

 indistinguishable from shoots included in Sphenolepidium, a con- 

 clusion to which I had been led^ by a comparison of Wealden 

 specimens of Sphenolepidium Kurrianum with Fontaine's figures. 

 Some of the Potomac examples agree in vegetative characters with 

 the genus Brachyphyllum. In the absence of any substantial 



1 Schimper (74) A. PI. Lxxv. fig. 21. 



2 Saporta (84) PI. 199. ' Unger (52); (54^). 

 ' Thiselton-Dyer (72). = Halle (13) p. 40. 



« Fontaine (89) B. p. 239. ' Berry (11«). ^ Seward (95) A. p. 202. 



