XLIX] TORREYITES 419 



specimens which there is good reason for connecting with Torreya 

 and Taxus respectively. 



Among the numerous specimens of wood from Mesozoic and 

 Tertiary beds referred by authors to Taxoxylon'^ there are very few 

 which show true spiral bands on the secondary-xylem elements: 

 there are»no undoubted examples of the Taxineous type of stem 

 from pre-Tertiary strata. 



The foliage-shoots described as species of Taxites are as a rule 

 valueless as records of Taxus, Cephalotaxus, or Torreya. Some 

 small seeds very like those of Taxus baccata are described by 

 Ludwig from the OUgocene lignites of West Germany as Taxus 

 margaritifera^ and similar examples were described by Heer* as 

 Carpolithes nitens from the lignites of Bovey Tracey: the Bovey 

 seeds have recently been named by Mr and Mrs Eeid Taxus {?) 

 nitens^. The latter authors refer some globose mucronate seeds 

 from the preglacial deposits of Norfolk to Taxus baccata^, and 

 Clement Eeid® records the same species from preglacial beds in 

 Suffolk, from interglacial beds in Suffolk and from the peat below 

 sea-level in the Thames valley. The genus Taxus ranges through 

 parts of Europe, Asia, North America, Algeria, and occurs sporadi- 

 cally on the mountains of Sumatra, Celebes and the Phihppines ; 

 it is noteworthy that there is little difference between the several 

 species which are probably mere geographical forms'. The Yew 

 is still wild in parts of Sussex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire, in a few 

 locaUties in Scotland, but still rarer in Ireland. It is clear from 

 the Pleistocene records that Taxus was formerly much more widely 

 spread. Dr Conwentz^ has shown that many places in Germany 

 and the British Isles derive their names from the Yew, and the 

 same author found that several prehistoric wooden articles in the 

 Dublin Museum are made from Yew wood. 



TORREYITES. 



The evidence on which several fossil Coniferous branches from 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks have been referred to Torreya is in 



1 See page 202. ^ Ludwig (61) p. 73, PI. Lx. fig. 19. 



3 Heer (62) p. 1078, PI. lxx. figs. 15—23. 



« C. and E. M. Reid (10) p. 172. 



= Ibid. p. 171, PI. XVI. figs. 42, 43; (08) Pi. xv. fig. 14i5. 



« Reid (99) B. p. 151. ' Elwes and Henry (06) p. 99. ' Conwentz (01). 



27—2 



