XI] 



PODOZAMITES 



453 



Rhaetic flora of Tonkin^. There are few satisfactory records of 

 t^e genus from the southern hemisphere, and we have no actual 

 proof of its existence in India, though FeistmanteP refers to 

 Podozamites detached leaves, which, as an examination of the 

 original specimens shows, may have been borne on Podozamites 

 shoots, but they may also be examples of Phoenicopsis. One of 

 the leaves figured by Feistmantel from the 

 Jabalpur group as Podozamites lanceolatus 

 is reproduced in fig. 813 from a drawing 

 recently made from the actual fossil: the 

 lamina shows several fine parallel stria- 

 tions between the more clearly marked 

 veins. Miss Holden, who examined the 

 carbonised cuticles of some of the Indian 

 leaves lent to me by the Director of the 

 Indian Geological Survey, found that the 

 epidermal cells have straight walls and 

 the stomata, usually with six accessory 

 cells, occur in the intercostal regions on 

 both surfaces: the characters of the epi- 

 dermis are favourable to a relationship 

 with the Coniferales and they are not 

 inconsistent with the inclusion of the fossils in the genus Phoe- 

 nicopsis. Halle^ has recently described some imperfect leaves 

 from Patagonia as probably Podozamites, but as he pertinently 

 says the evidence is not enough to estabhsh the correctness of the 

 determination. Some of the leaves from the Potomac beds in- 

 cluded by Fontaine in Podozamites are of Httle value as authentic 

 records of the genus, but there is still considerable doubt as to 

 the relationship between this genus and Nageiopsis which was very 

 abundant in the Potomac flora. The leaves figured by Fontaine* 

 from the Jurassic of Oregon and from Alaska are also not above 

 suspicion as records of Podozamites, though there is no doubt that 

 the genus was represented in some of the North American floras. 



^ B 



Fig. 813. A, Specimen figured 

 by Feistmantel as Podo- 

 zamites lanceolatus. B, Piece 

 of lamina enlarged. (Cal- 

 cutta Museum; Geol. Surv., 

 India.) 



1 Walkom (17) p. 20. 



2 Feistmantel (82) p. 39, PI. ii. figs. 2—5. 



3 HaUe (13). 



* Fontaine in Ward (05) B. Pis. xxiv., xxv., xLiy. Knowlton (14) Pis. v., vi. 



