XI V] FOSSIL LYCOPODIALES 75 



but such facts as we possess lead us to regard the suggestion as 

 resting on a sound basis. 



Palaeobotanical literature abounds in records of species of 

 Lycopodites, Lycopodium, Selaginella and Selaginites, which 

 have been so named in the belief that their vegetative shoots 

 bear a greater resemblance to those of recent lycopodiaceous 

 plants than to the foliage shoots of Lepidodendron. Many 

 of these records are valueless: Lepidodendra, twigs of Both- 

 rodendron} species of conifers, fern rhizomes, and Aphlebiae^ 

 have masqueraded as herbaceous lycopods. It is obvious that 

 an attempt to identify fossils presenting a general agreement in 

 habit and leaf-form with recent species of lycopods must be 

 attended with considerable risk of error. Recent Conifers 

 include several species the smaller branches of which simulate 

 the leafy shoots of certain species of Lycopodium and 

 Selaginella, and it is not surprising to find that this similarity 

 has been responsible for many false determinations. Among 

 Mosses and the larger foliose Liverworts there are species which 

 in the condition of imperfectly preserved impressions, might 

 easily be mistaken for lycopodiaceous shoots: an equally 

 close resemblance is apparent in the case of some flowering 

 plants, such as New Zealand species of Veronica, Tafalla 

 graveolens (a Composite), Lavoisiera lycopodiodes Gard.^ (a 

 species of Melastomaceae), all of which have the habit of 

 Cupressineae among the conifers as well as of certain lycopodi- 

 aceous plants. It may be impossible to decide whether fossil 

 impressions of branches, which are presumably lycopodiaceous, 

 bear two kinds of leaves* like the great majority of recent 

 species of Selaginella. Selaginella grandis, if seen from the 

 under surface, would appear to have two rows of leaves only 

 and might be confused with a small twig of such a conifer as 

 Dacrydium Kirkii, a New Zealand species. 



The New Zealand conifers Dacrydium cupressinum Soland., 

 and Podocarpus dacrydioides Rich, closely simulate species of 

 Selaginellites and Lycopodites: in the British Museum a 



' Feistmantel (75) A. p. 183, PI. xxx. pp. 1 and 2. 

 2 Germar (49) PL xxvi; Geinitz (55) A. PI. i. pp. 5, 6. 

 8 Bommer (03) p. 29, PL ix, figs. 138—141. 

 * Solms-Lanbach (91) A. p. 137. 



