360 SEQUOIINEAE [CH. 



this purpose and it should be applied to sterile branches of the • 

 Araucaria type which cannot reasonably be referred to Elatides, 

 Geinitzia, or other genera connoting certain types of fertile shoot. 

 It has, however, been pointed out that in the first instance Geinitzia 

 was applied to sterile shoots, but later this designation came to be 

 associated with cones of elongate-oval form bearing peltate scales. 

 In 1852 Unger^ applied Geinitzia to a specimen from Neustadt 

 consisting of a slender piece of foHage-shoot and an imperfectly 

 preserved cone similar to the cones of Heer's Sequoia Reichenbachii 

 but longer in form. Subsequently Heer^ described under the name 

 Geinitzia formosa shoots and cones from Lower Cretaceous strata 

 at Quedlinburg; the cones are similar in form to that figured by 

 Unger and bear cone-scales with polygonal distal ends having a 

 central umbo and radially disposed lines on the exposed surface. 

 Schenk^ also gives good drawings of Geinitzia formosa. A well pre- 

 served cone very like Heer's G. formosa was described by Newberry* 

 from the Amboy clays as Sequoia gracillima, the specific name 

 having been previously used by Lesquereux for sterile branches 

 from Dakota in conjunction with the generic name Glyptostrobus. 

 Newberry adopted Lesquereux's specific term because he found in 

 the Dakota beds cones like that from the Amboy clays associated 

 with the branches described by Lesquereux. Newberry's cone is 

 practically identical with that of Heer's Geinitzia formosa, but it is 

 noteworthy that the former is borne on a slender branch having 

 small appressed leaves in place of the more spreading falcate leaves 

 of Heer's species. This difference in the foliage is of secondary 

 importance in comparison with the close resemblance between the 

 cones. Subsequently Jeffrey^ obtained good cones from the 

 Matawan formation apparently identical with Sequoia gracillima 

 (Lesq.) as figured by Newberry and he was able to investigate the 

 anatomical features. The pith of the cone-axis contains groups of 

 sclerous cells', the phloem differs from that of Sequoia in the ■absence 

 of fibres, while the secondary wood has no resin-cells — another 

 difference from Sequoia: the tracheal pits are circular and in no 

 case contiguous and there are no rims of Sanio. The latter feature 



1 Unger (522). a jjegr (7^2) p g^ pj^^ ^^ jj^ 



" Schimper and Schenk (90) A. p. 299. 



* Newberry and Holliok (95) p. 50, PI. ix. figs. 1—3. = Jeffrey (11). 



