386 E. W. Berry — Mid-Cretaceous Species of Torreya. 



of the large erect seeds is regarded by Oliver- as distinctly 

 ancient and peculiar among recent plants. Omitting arguments 

 drawn from the unspecialized secondary phloem, reduced arche- 

 gonia, two cotyledones, etc., which may be susceptible of 

 more than one explanation, it may be added that the present 

 geographical distribution of Tumion indicates considerable 

 antiquity. Add to this the evidence of its existence in the 

 oldest Cretaceous along with forms which are seemingly close 

 to Cephalotaxus, i. e., Cephalotaxopsis, and it would seem that 

 there are strong grounds for the belief that the Taxese are, at 

 least, a very old stock, even if we are not quite prepared, as 

 yet, to follow them back to the Paleozoic Cordaitales. 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 



* Annals of Botany, A r ol. xvii, p. 451, 1903. 



