204 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XL 



Conclusions 



The cone-scales referred by Heer to Dammara, at least in the 

 case of those from Kreischerville, do not belong to that genus but 

 to the hitherto unrecognized Araucarinean genus Protodammara. 



The leafy shoots and branches from several eastern American 

 Cretaceous beds referred by various authors to Brachyphyllum* 

 are of Araucarian affinities, as shown by their structure and as 

 indicated by their constant association with the cone scales of 

 Protodammara. 



A large part of the lignites associated with both the above are 

 Araucarineous and probably represent in part the wood of the 

 trees which bore the leafy branches of Brachyphyllum and the 

 cones of Protodammara. 



The latter genus w^as in all probability the last survivor of an 

 ancient Araucarian line of descent, joined near its base with the 

 primitive stocks of the Abietineous and Cupressineous series. Its 

 anatomical characters show that it was forced to occupy less 

 advantageous situations in Cretaceous times, and possibly in 

 earlier periods as well. It may have grown on dry hills, while 

 the better adapted related forms, which still survive in the modern 

 genera Araucaria and Dammara, flourished in the richer lowlands, 

 in company with other gymnosperms of higher type of develop- 

 ment and with the angiosperms, which even then had begun to 

 assume the predominant position which they occupy to-day. 



1 We do not consider it by any means proved, that all the leafy branches 

 of the type of Brachyphyllum are necessarily Araucarian. It appears not 



other families of the Conifers. This for example may well be the case with 



