410 PODOCAKPINEAE [C^- 



Fossils believed to be related to Dacrydium. 



The records of tlie rocks afEord very little information with 

 regard to the past history of Conifers allied to the recent genus 

 Dacrydium. The marked dimorphism of the foliage-shoots (fig. 708, 

 p. 160), their close resemblance to branches of some other Conifers, 

 as also to Lycopodiaceous plants and some of the larger Mosses, 

 are serious difficulties in the way of recognising representatives of 

 this genus among impressions of vegetative branches. It is inter- 

 esting to find that the most promising piece of evidence of the 

 occurrence of a fossil type (Stachyotaxus) allied to Dacrydium is 

 furnished by a Rhaetic flora, a fact pointing to a high antiquity 

 of the plan of reproductive shoot characteristic of existing species. 



Schenk^ compares with Dacrydium some obscure and small 

 fragments from the Coal Measures of China which he described as 

 Conchophyllum Richthofeni, but there are no substantial grounds 

 for such comparison. The specimens consist of pieces of slender 

 axes bearing spirally disposed bracts or small leaves showing at the 

 base of the ovate-oblong lamina a slight depression from which a 

 seed may have fallen. The Lower Cretaceous foliage-shoots from 

 Bohemia described by Velenovsky^ as Dacrydium densifolium have 

 no claim to be accepted as branches of a Podocarpineous Conifer. 

 Ettingshausen' figures from Eocene beds in Australia and New 

 Zealand sterile twigs assigned respectively to Dacrydium cupressi- 

 noides and D. jyrae-cupressinum : in neither case is there any evi- 

 dence as to the nature of the reproductive organs, and the form 

 of the foliage-shoots might with equal probability be interpreted 

 as evidence of other Conifers or of some Lycopodiaceous plant. 



STACHYOTAXUS. Nathorst. 

 Stachyotaxus elegans Nathorst. 



The genus Stachyotaxus* was instituted for some Rhaetic 

 specimens from Scania originally named by Agardh Sargassum 

 septentrioiiale and Caulerpa septentrionalis; the former was re- 

 named by Nathorst Carpolithes septentrionalis and the latter 



1 Schenk (83) A. p. 223, PI. XLii. figs. 21—26. 



2 Velenovsky (85) B. PI. xn. figs. 1—2. 



3 Ettingshauseu (86) Pi. vin. figs. 23, 24; (88) PI. i. fig. 19. 

 " Nathorst (86) p. 98. 



