AFFINITIES OF CERTAIN CRETACEOUS PLANT 

 REMAINS COMMONLY REFERRED TO 

 THE GENERA DAMMARA AND 

 BRACHYPHYLLUM^ 



ARTHUR HOLLICK AND EDWARD C. JEFFREY 



Introduction 



This paper is a preliminary contribution, designed to demon- 

 strate the value of critical examinations of pala^obotanical mate- 

 rial by means of the microscope. The results obtained by such 

 examinations of three kinds of Cretaceous fossil plant remains 

 are described, viz.: cone scales commonly referred to the living 

 genus Dammara, leafy branches commonly referred to the extinct 

 Coniferous genus Brachyphyllum, whose exact botanical affinities 

 have not heretofore been satisfactorily determined, and certain 

 lignitic fragments found associated with the foregoing. 



The first mentioned are shown to belong not to Dammara but 

 to an extinct genus, closely related to it, to which the new generic 

 name Protodammara is given. The second are shown to be 

 Araucarinean in their affinities and probably to represent the 

 branches of the tree which bore the cones from which the scales 

 of Protodammara were derived. The third are shown to be 

 referable to Araucarioxylon and probably to represent the wood 

 of the tree which bore the leaves of Brachyphyllum and the cones 

 of Protodammara. 



' Read before the Botanical Society of America, New Orleans meeting, 

 January 4, 1906. . 



Contributions from the Phanerogamic Laboratories of Harvard University. 



• - • IG d N 79 



189 



