684 PROFESSOR A. C. SEWARD ON 



Wealden of Portugal by Heer as B. obesum # and recognised in the Wealden flora of 

 England agrees very closely with the Scotch specimens. Brachyphyllum crassicaule 

 Font.f from the Potomac beds is a very similar, if not identical, type. It is hopeless to 

 attempt to determine with accuracy the numerous examples of Brachyphyllum branches 

 which are widely spread in both Cretaceous and Jurassic floras. 



Elatides, Heer. 

 Elatides curvifolia (Dunker). (PL V. figs. 76, 77 ; PL VIII. photos. 22-25, 30 ; 



text-fig. 10, A, B.) 



1846. Lycopodites curvifolius, Dunker, Wealdenbildung, p. 20, pi. vii. fig. 9. 



1897. Elatides curvifolia, Nathorst, Kongl. Svensk. Vet. Ah ad. Hand., Bd. xxx., No. i., pis. i., ii. 



This Wealden species, originally figured by Dunker as a species of Lycopodites, 

 transferred by Ettingshausen to Araucarites, and placed by other authors in other 

 genera, has recently been included by Nathorst in Heer's genus Elatides. J That 

 genus was founded on coniferous shoots characterised by falcate leaves with a single 

 vein and by oval or cylindrical cones composed of imbricate scales. This species is one 

 of the most abundant in the Culgower flora. The habit is best seen in photo. 22, 

 PL VIII. ; the falcate, spirally disposed leaves are identical in form with those of 

 Araucaria excelsa and other species of the genus. In photo. 23 the leaves are rather 

 shorter, but the branch is clearly of the same type as the larger example shown in 

 photo. 22. A slightly different form is seen in photo. 30. As Nathorst shows in his 

 description of the rich material from the Upper Jurassic of Spitzbergen, the foliage- 

 shoots of this type exhibit a considerable range of variation in the size and form of the 

 leaves. The cones are unfortunately represented by incomplete specimens, but these 

 are not without interest. The fertile shoot seen in fig. 76, PL V., shows crowded 

 imbricate scales composing an elongate-oval strobilus. On some of the scales, as at a, 

 fig. 76, which is shown more clearly in text-fig. 10, B, and on the scales a and b of the 

 example reproduced in text-fig. 10, A, there is some evidence of the occurrence of a single 

 seed on the upper surface of the scales, a feature, if my interpretation is correct, which 

 supports the view naturally suggested by the habit of the vegetative shoots that this 

 species is a member of the Araucariese, a possibility recognised by Nathorst as by other 

 authors. The scale shown in text-fig. 10, B,§ is very similar to those shown in figs. 97, 98, 

 PL V., and there is a faint indication of a spinous process at the apex, as in the larger 

 scales, which has been pressed down on to the upper face of the seminiferous scale. 

 As, however, the evidence of Araucarian affinity afforded by the badly preserved scales is 

 not conclusive, it would be premature to substitute the name Araucarites for Elatides. 



Hugh Miller figured several specimens of this species and recognised their 



resemblance to recent Araucarias. In one of his specimens (fig. 130, C) || the single 



* Heer (81), pi. xvii. figs. 1-4. t Fontaine (89), pis. cxi., cxii. \ For synonymy, see Nathoiist (97). 



§ The drawing reproduced in text-fig. 10, B, slightly exaggerates the surface-features, but I have endeavoured to 

 indicate in the sketch the nature of the scale so far as it is possible to interpret the very imperfect specimen. 

 || Miller (57), p. 472. 



