GY.MNOSPERMtE. 



89 



veined leaf, known as Mac Clin tocJcia, belonging to a shrub perhaps which might have 

 formed an evergreen undergrowth. With these, and lying in every direction, are tufts of 

 Cryptomeria. 



I ventured previously to assign the disjointed fragments of foliage and the small cones 

 so abundant at Ballypalady to this genus, although I had not seen them actually attached 

 together. Here we have, however, at Glenarm, branchlets of most luxuriant growth, 

 with cones actually seated upon them (PI. XXI), and possessing every characteristic of 

 Cryptomeria. 



The leaflets are larger and more crowded than those of Ballypalady, but not quite so 

 large as in the existing species, woodcut, fig, 34. The branches were so densely tufted 

 that their branchlets are compressed four or five deep upon each other, and they present 

 the peculiar parallelism and acute angles of divergence of the existing species. The foliage 

 is smaller than that of Araucaria Goepperti, PI. XI, fig. 1, and does not present any 

 trace of seasonal variation. The cones are globular, usually solitary, but sometimes two 

 are attached to the same branchlet, which is thickened to support them. They are rather 

 less than an inch in diameter, composed of numerous fringed scales springing from a 

 short axis, and seemingly identical in structure with living examples. The tree must in 

 fact have been similar in appearance and habit to the most luxuriant of the existing types ; 

 and it is quite apparent from this, no less than from its great abundance, that the station 

 it occupied was a highly favorable one. 



It might be questioned whether it should remain united specifically with the 

 relatively starved variety of Ballypalady, but the fact that the living species varies in at 

 least an equal degree, according to the nature of its station, seems to preclude any separa- 

 tion. It does not appear that any other Conifers accompany it in the beds at Glenarm. 



Genus — Taxus.^ 



Taxus Swanstoni, sp. nov. Plate X, figs. 4, a and h, and 5. ' . 



Basaltic Formation, Ballypalady, County Antrim. 



Only simple branchlets of this rare fossil have hitherto been met with. The best 

 specimen measures seventy-five millimetres in length, but its base appears rather broken 

 than articulated. It is clothed only for the first half of its length with short, very 

 obtusely pointed, undeveloped, spirally disposed, scale-like leaves, some of which become 

 expanded higher up into distichous leaflets of a yew-like aspect. These are narrow, 

 linear, variable in size up to fourteen millimetres in length, opposite or alternate, 

 parallel-sided, obtusely pointed, shortly decurrent, and with distinct mid-rib. A few 

 seem adpressed to the stem, but the great majority quit it at almost a right angle. The 

 terminal leaflets are very small, and the apex of the branch is consequently somewhat 

 truncated. 



1 See ante, p. 43. 



