l] cypaeissidium 443 



spirally disposed (fig. 809). The lamina is rounded, ovate or 

 obovate, and always bilobed at the broad apex : 

 no veins were detected. As Halle says, it is im- 

 possible to determine the affinities of the frag- 

 ments but he thinks they may belong to pen- 

 dulous branches of a Conifer. Attention is called 

 to a resemblance to some Hepaticae, and a pos- 

 sible relationship to Lycopodium or the Psilotales 

 may also be suggested. The choice of the generic 

 name is not intended to imply anything more 

 than a superficial similarity between the leaves 

 and the bilobed strobilar appendages of ScJiizo- 

 lepis^. 



CYPARISSIDIUM. Heer. della gracilis. (After 



Halle ; A, enlarged ; 



This name was given^ to foliage-shoots and B, nat. size.) 

 cones, from the Urgonian rocks of Greenland, originally described as 

 Widdringtonites gracilis^. The smaller sterile branches are indistin- 

 guishable from specimens referred by authors to Widdringtonites 

 while the larger examples might be included in Brachyphyllum. The 

 leaves are small, appressed, and imbricate, similar to those of some 

 recent Cupressineae and Callitrineae but spirally disposed and not 

 verticillate (fig. 810); the shoots agree also with Microcachrys and 

 other recent Conifers. The cones are composed of a small number 

 of flat scales (fig. 810, B) too imperfectly preserved to afford any 

 definite evidence as to the affinities of the genus. Heer states 

 that a detached cone-scale shows the impression of a single seed, 

 but the material is insufficient to form the basis of a comparison 

 with the Araucarineae ; he points out a resemblance to Cunning- 

 hamia, and mentions the striated surface of the fossil cone-scales 

 as a distinctive feature, though that may be due, in part at least, 

 to the state of preservation. The flat form of the cone-scales is a 

 character in which Cyparissidium differs from genera such as 

 Sequoiites, and from the Callitrineae the cones are distinguished by 

 the spiral arrangement of the scales. 



1 See page 439. 



2 Heer (75) ii. PI. xvn. fig. 5 b, c; Pis. xix., xx., xxi.; (82) pp. 16, 50, Pis. i., vn., 

 xxvm. ' Ihid. (68) p. 83. 



