Edwards. — Fossil Coniferous Wood from Kerguelen Island. 615 
the rays. Gothan discusses in detail the significance of the supposed 
septate tracheides, though without reaching any definite conclusion. He 
does not consider that they are resin parenchyma because of the absence 
of any resin content, though resin is often present as a dark mass in the 
ray cells. The appearance of the transverse section, however, as described 
by Gothan (‘ eine Anzahl von Zellen, die scheinbar mit dunklerem, 
braunlichem Inhalt erfiillt scheinen ’), supports the idea that the septa are 
really resin plates. The fact that the resin was so reduced in the tracheides 
and not in the ray cells is not surprising when one considers the variation 
in the amount and distribution of the resin in D. kerguelense and other 
araucarians. 
Though the non-committal name Dadoxylon is used for the Kerguelen 
species, it agrees closely in structure with living araucarians, and among 
Text-fig. 4. Dadoxylon kerguelense. Radial longitudinal section, showing thin plates and 
projections of resin. Slide V. 5867 £. 
fossil species from the Southern Hemisphere it is very near to those already 
mentioned from New Zealand and Seymour Island. Gothan indeed calls 
his wood D . {Araucaria) pseudoparenchymatosum , thus indicating its close 
affinity with living types, though since there seems to be no method of 
deciding whether any fossil araucarian wood belonged to Araucaria or to 
Agathis , it seems better to use the name Dadoxylon alone. 
Gothan’s species differs from D. kerguelense chiefly in the point of 
resin distribution. It is of Tertiary or perhaps Upper Cretaceous age, while 
D. novae-Zeelandiae is supposed to be mid- Cretaceous. The latter and 
D. kerguelense agree in most characters, including the presence of resin 
spools, but in D. novae-Z eelandiae the growth rings are better marked, and 
the late wood is several cells broad ; the' medullary rays are also only 
1-7 cells high instead of 1-11, and the field pits, according to Dr. Stopes, 
are 5 or 6 in number, while there are frequently more in D. kerguelense. 
