XLVl] CEYPTOMEEIOPSIS 335 



specimens figured by Etfcingshausen from Monte Promina as Arau- 

 carites Sternbergii and some of the impressions from Greenland re- 

 ferred by Heer^ to Sequoia Sternbergi. TheMiocene fragments figured 

 by Heer afford no evidence of affinity other than that of leaf-form, 

 and the use of the term Cryptomerites should therefore be avoided. 

 If the Eocene plant is correctly regarded as closely allied to 

 Cryptomeria it suppfies another striking illustration of the change 

 in the geographical distribution of Conifers since the early part of 

 the Tertiary period. 



CRYPTOMERIOPSIS. Stopes and Fujii. 



Cryptomeriopsis antiqua Stopes and Fujii. The name Crypto- 

 meriopsis^ was proposed for some petrified twigs from Upper 

 Cretaceous beds in Japan resembling in habit and structural 

 features the recent Conifer Cryptomeria japonica. The xylem of 

 the axis consists of tracheids with uniseriate separate, circular, 

 bordered pits; there are no resin-canals and no xylem-parenchyma ; 

 the presence of the latter tissue is recorded by Suzuki in a second 

 Japanese species C. mesozoica^. The medullary rays are usually 

 one-cell deep in the type-species and there are a few (1 — 3 in 

 C. mesozoica) oval pits in the field. In C. antiqua the phloem is 

 said to consist of soft tissue only, but fibres occur in C. mesozoica. 

 An undivided leaf-trace supplies each leaf. The four-sided leaves 

 are characterised by the presence of three canals, a large central 

 canal below the vascular bundle and two lateral ducts; the vascular 

 bundle is accompanied by well-developed lateral groups of trans- 

 fusion-tracheids. The leaves of C. mesozoica differ in a few details 

 from those of the type-species. Prof. Jeffrey* maintains that 

 Cryptomeriopsis is generically identical with Geinitzia as described 

 by Holhck and Jeffrey from Staten Island and should be included 

 in the Araucarineae. Dr Stopes^ adheres to the view that the 

 Japanese fossils are closely alhed to Cryptomeria and afford no 

 evidence of affinity to Araucaria : the structure of the xylem shows 

 no Araucarian features in the pitting of the tracheids and, while 

 accurate determination of systematic position must depend upon the 

 evidence of reproductive shoots, the evidence of the vegetative shoots 

 favours comparison with Cryptomeria rather than with Araucaria. 



1 Heer (75) iii. PI. ii. figs. 1—4. 



2 Stopes and Fujii (10) p. 52, PL i. fig. U; PI. vi. figs. 35—41. 



3 Suzuki (10) p. 185. * Jeffrey (10=) p. 771. = Stopes {IV) 



