140 IHTJIIES. 



to the seeds from Stonesfleld and elsewhere which, are regarded 

 as Araucarian ; it is impossible to refer them with certainty to 

 a particular species. 



V. 6591. PI. XII. Fig. 6. 



A detached seed, 1'2 cm. long, probably from an Araucarian cone. 



■Stonesfleld? Roht. Brown Coll, 



Other specimens:— Y. 3443 {BroMe Coll.); ?V. 3444 {^Brodie 

 Co«.); V.6347. (Stonesfleld.) 



Family CTIPRESSINEiE ? 



The species Tkuites expansus usually included in this family 

 agrees with the recent members in the whorled arrangement of 

 the leaves, but the structure of the cones bears a closer resemblance 

 to that which is met with in the genus Sequoia and other conifers 

 than those belonging to the Cupressinese. Our knowledge of the 

 fertile shoots of Thuites is too meagre to enable us to compare them 

 in detail with the cones of existing types. 



Genus THUITES, Brongniart. 



[Tableau, p. 71, 1849.] 



The customary inclusion of the comprehensive fossil genus 

 Thuites in the Cupressinese is open to question on the grounds that 

 ■our knowledge is very incomplete as regards certain features of 

 taxonomic importance. The family as represented at the present 

 day is characterised by the arrangement of both vegetative and 

 reproductive leaves in alternate whorls : the scale-leaves of Thuites, 

 e.g. T. expansus, usually appear to conform in this respect to the 

 similar leaves of Cupressus, Thuja, and other recent genera, but in 

 some examples the leaves are by no means obviously whorled. 

 This departure from the whorled disposition, which may be 

 apparent and not an original character, need not prove an obstacle 

 to the inclusion of Thuites in the Cupressinese, as one occasionally 

 notices the same tendency towards a spiral leaf-arrangement on 

 recent twigs. A much more important discrepancy between the 

 fossil and recent forms is noticed in the reproductive shoots. The 



