Bd. III: 14) 
THE MESOZOIC FLORA. 
73 
The specimens shown in pi. 8 display a very great variation both in size and 
in other respects; and it is not certain that they all belong to one and the same 
species. It seems impossible, however, to draw any satisfactory limits between the 
extreme forms, and these may therefore be grouped broadly and all included in one 
species. Such differences as occur may be due to a different place in the cone or 
to a different stage of development. As typical specimens may be regarded those 
shown in figs. 4. 7 and 8. The others are smaller (figs. 9 and 10) or larger (fig. 6) 
or comparatively broader (fig. 5). 
The scales are always more or less cimeate with 
a narrow, truncate or emarginate base. They consist 
of a thicker, narrowly triangular median portion which 
passes more or less gradually into the lateral mem- 
branous portions or wings. These lateral wings are 
not always preserved, but have sometimes been de- 
stroyed before the fossilization, thus causing the scale 
to look narrower than it was originally. The distal 
edge of the scale is nearly truncate or slightly rounded 
and is continued into a narrow linear appendage. This 
is not preserved in all specimens, but is well seen in 
figs. 7 and 10. Each scale carries only one seed, which 
is narrowly ovoid in shape, with the thicker end to- 
wards the apex of the scale. The specimen shown in 
fig. 3 consists almost exclusively of the seed, the greater 
part of the scale having disappeared. The seed is 
well shown in the specimen in fig. 8, too. In some of the specimens there can be 
seen a faint but distinct ligule. This kind of outgrowth is characteristic, in a varying 
degree of development, of all living species of Araucaria. It has not been observed 
in Araucarites ctitchensis, but is known in the very closely allied A. Brodiei Car- 
RUTHERS (1869, p. 3; pi. 2, figs. i~5). In some of our specimens the ligule is very 
well developed, as seen in text-figs. 16 a and b, which represent the same specimens 
as pi. 8, figs. 8 and 6 respectively. It consists of a wider basal portion, a little 
broader than the seed, and a protracted narrow and pointed apex reaching to the 
upper edge of the scale. 
There can be no doubt that scales of this type show a very close agreement 
with those of the living Araucarice. As far as their structure is known, indeed, 
they might be referred not only to the recent genus, but to one of the two sections 
into which it is usually subdivided. The present scales would find their place in 
the section Eutacta, which is distinguished from the section Colymbcca^ inter alia, by 
broad scales with flat membranous wings. 
10 — 122943. Schwedische Südpola}-- Expedition igoi — zçoj. 
b 
Fig. 16 . Araucarites cutchensis 
Feistm. ; seed-bearing scales; 
a. enlarged portion of pi. 8 , fig. 8 : 
b, of pi. 8 , fig. 6 ; ^/i. 
