Edwards . — Fossil Coniferous Wood from Kerguelen Island . 611 
secondary wood contained here and there single scattered resin cells 
(as seen in transverse section ; his figures of longitudinal sections show 
no parenchyma), and the tangential walls of the tracheides are pitted, 
whereas in the McCormick specimens there is abundant resin parenchyma 
and no tangential pitting. Moreover, Crie shows the tracheide pits in con- 
tact in a single row, and it is even possible, as Krausel ( 1919 , p. 208) 
suggests, that the wood was really araucarian. 
Age of the specimens. The Tertiary date of the basalts has generally 
been assumed, partly on the evidence of the fossil woods (Philippi, 1908 , 
p. 197). Though these may well be of Tertiary age, however, they cannot 
be considered as absolutely definitive, nor is it possible to fix the horizon 
any more exactly on geological grounds. Seward ( 1914 , p. 208) makes a 
comparison with the plants preserved in the Tertiary basalts of north-west 
Europe, and, referring to the resemblance between the basaltic hills of 
Kerguelen and of South Victoria Land, suggests an extensive basaltic out- 
pouring in Tertiary times. Philippi further remarks that the weathering 
and changes that have taken place in the basalt point to the outflow being 
of earlier rather than later Tertiary date. 
Krausel’s reference ( 1919 , p. 208) to the age of C. kerguelense , Crie, as 
‘ Trias ? (Tertiar ?) ’ is doubtless an error, for Crie considered the wood to be 
Tertiary. 
Cupressinoxylon antarcticmn , Beust. 
Description : Annual rings well marked ; resin canals entirely absent ; 
resin parenchyma abundant ; bordered pits usually in one row and usually 
separate and scattered, rarely in two rows, opposite and separate or adjacent, 
occasionally in contiguous pairs and slightly flattened, the pairs being 
vertically or obliquely placed ; rims of Sanio present, frequently attached 
to the margin of the pit ; tangential walls of tracheides unpitted ; medullary 
rays uniseriate, very rarely partly biseriate, 1-15 cells in height (commonly 
1-6), frequently containing resin ; abietinean pitting absent ; field pitting not 
usually preserved, but occasionally 1-4 rather small and apparently simple 
pits present. 
Locality : Christmas Harbour, Kerguelen Island, lat. 49 0 S. 
Age : ? Tertiary. 
General remarks : All the specimens examined are of mature wood, 
some of the stems being of considerable girth, and no young twigs have been 
seen. The annual rings vary from 10 to 40 cells in width in different 
specimens, and the spring wood is usually distorted and crushed. The 
preservation is frequently very poor, and the tracheides often show the spiral 
markings which are due to decay. The occasional occurrence of contiguous 
and partly alternate pits is not uncommon in both living and fossil 
non-araucarian Conifers. 
