400 ABIBTINEAE [CH. 



CROSSOTOLEPIS. Fliche. 



Crossotolepis Perroti Fliche. This generic name^ was proposed 

 for an imperfectly preserved cone, from Oligocene beds near 

 Embrun in the French Alps, of elongate-cylindrical form, 13-3 cm. 

 long and 3-5 cm. in diameter, characterised by the fimbriate edge 

 of the imbricate, highly inclined, scales, which bear two seeds. 

 The cone agrees closely with several recent Abietineous types 

 especially with Picea Menziesii and other species of Picea, but is 

 distinguished by the deeply fimbriate upper margin of the thin 

 cone-scales; it is difficult to determine how far this feature is the 

 result of secondary causes: Fliche believes it to be an original 

 character comparable with that which led Saporta to found the 

 genus Entomolepis for an Oligocene cone from Armissan in Provence. 

 It is not certain whether the seeds are winged. Fliche is no doubt 

 correct in his conclusion that Crossotolepis is an Abietineous cone 

 closely allied to Picea and probably related to Entomolepis. He 

 refers the two Oligocene genera to the Abietineae; they differ 

 from any recent forms in the greater dissection of the distal edges 

 of the seed-bearing scales, which in this respect are comparable 

 with the more feebly lobed scales of the cones of Picea Engelmanni 

 and other species. Our knowledge of both genera is, however, 

 meagre and all that can be said is that the type-specimens afford 

 some evidence of the former occurrence of some Tertiary Abietineous 

 Conifers distinguished by the distally dissected scales from any 

 recent types. 



PREPINUS. Jefirey. 



This genus was instituted^ for lignitic specimens of short shoots 

 and leaves from Middle Cretaceous beds on Staten Island, N.Y. 

 characterised by the large and indefinite number of leaves borne 

 on a single short shoot, the presence of a basal sheath of scale-' 

 leaves, and by certain anatomical features, particularly the mesarch 

 structure of the single leaf-bundle, the occurrence of a complex 

 system of transfusion tissue, and other features. 



1 Kpoaaurdi, fringed, tasselled. Fliche (99) p. 474, PI. xn. 



2 Jeffrey (08^) Pis. xm., xiv.; HolKok and Jeffrey (09) B. p. 19, Pis. ix., 

 xxn. — XXIV. 



