414 PHYLLOCLADINBAB [CH. 



no real evidence of a relationship to the recent genus Phyllocladus , 

 but Heer's term may be retained for a species described by 

 Ettingshausen as Phyllocladus asplenioides^. 



Phyllocladites asplenioides (Ettingshausen). 



This Tertiary species from New South Wales presents a close 

 resemblance to Phyllocladus (fig. 675, p. 107) and is probably an 

 Eocene representative of the genus. The specimens consist of fairly 

 stout axes bearing cuneate and irregularly lobed leaf-like organs, 

 in some cases apparently subtended by small scales — a circum- 

 stance which justifies Ettingshausen's suggestion that the lateral 

 members are phylloclades. In one case a seed occurs at the base 

 of a phylloclade. The phylloclades are practically identical with 

 some forms of Thinnfeldia, particularly with American examples 

 referred by Berry to his genus Protophyllocladus ; the laminae of the 

 Australian species agree both in form and venation with those of 

 the Cretaceous American impressions, but in the latter there is 

 no good reason for interpreting the leaf-like organs as flattened 

 branches. 



Ettingshausen's species is the only fossil that has come under 

 my notice that has any substantial claim to be considered a satis- 

 factory record of the recent genus Phyllocladus. In the account 

 of Thinnfeldia in Volume ii^ reference is made to the resemblance 

 of some impressions included in that genus to the phylloclades of 

 Phyllocladus, a resemblance which led Ettingshausen to assign 

 the type-species of Thinnfeldia to the Coniferae. Berry^ considers 

 that Ettingshausen's comparison with Phyllocladus, though not 

 applicable to Jurassic and other of the older species of Thinnfeldia, 

 is valid in respect of certain Middle and Upper Cretaceous forms 

 for which he instituted the genus Protophyllocladus. Attention has 

 previously been called* to the inadequacy of the evidence in support 

 of the conclusion implied by the adoption of the name Proto- 

 phyllocladus. The specimens for which this name was instituted 

 consist of comparatively large coriaceous leaf-like impressions, linear 

 or ovate-lanceolate with an entire, undulate, or crenulate margin, 

 provided with a short petiole prolonged as a stout midrib from 

 which numerous simple veins are given off at an acute an»le. In 



1 Ettingshausen (86) p. 94, PI. viii. figs. 28—31. 



2 Page 543. ' Berry (03) B. 4 Seward (04) B. p. 31. 



