489 
Stiles . — The Podocarpeae. 
that the most characteristic feature of the Podocarpeae is the single 
ovule borne medianly in relation to the cone scale. It may be of course 
that we have in these fossils connecting links between the Podocarpeae 
and other orders, but at the present time such considerations are at best 
only conjectures. 
A very interesting petrified cone has been described by Hollick and 
Jeffrey from the Cretaceous of Kreischerville under the name of Strobi - 
lites micro sporophorus - 1 The cones were small and slender, while each 
sporophyll bore two sporangia containing microspores, each with two 
wings. The resemblance to a Podocarpean male cone is obvious, while 
Hollick and Jeffrey’s figures are very reminiscent of the structure of the 
microsporophyll of Podocarpus andinus. The authors regard it as belong- 
ing to a ‘ generalized araucarineous type, nearer in the structure of its male 
sporophylls to the Abietineae, than are any of the existing Araucarineae \ 2 
Similarly, it is also nearer to the Podocarpeae than are any of the exist- 
ing Araucarineae, and to the writer it seems quite possible that it com- 
bines features of all three orders, and is in this sense a synthetic type. 
Prominence has been given in the past to the similarity of the fossil 
cone Walchia filiciformis z to the Araucarieae . 4 This may serve to em- 
phasize the connexion between the Araucarieae and Podocarpeae, for the 
arguments that are used in favour of the relationship of Walchia with 
the Araucarieae may be used equally well in support of a relationship 
between Walchia and Saxegothaea. 
Thus the consideration of the fossils referred to the Podocarpeae 
afford little or no evidence either as to the course of phylogeny in the 
order, or as regards past geographical distribution, and this is due to the 
unsatisfactory nature of the plant remains referred to an affinity with 
the order. 
This absence of evidence, however, must not be regarded as equivalent 
to evidence of absence in past times. The present distribution of the 
Podocarpeae is almost entirely a Southern one, while it is chiefly the rocks 
in the Northern Hemisphere that have been explored for fossil plant 
remains. As Burlingame remarks of the Podocarpeae, ‘ We know but 
little of the plant remains of those parts of the world in which these 
remains would be most likely to be found .’ 5 
xv. Inter-relationships of the Genera and Species. 
That the six genera included in the Podocarpeae in this paper form 
a natural group cannot, I think, be doubted when the sum of their characters 
is taken into consideration. The structure of the wood of the stem, the 
1 Hollick and Jeffrey (’09), p. 66. 2 1. c., p. 68. 
3 Zeiller (’92), p. 99, PI. XV. 4 Seward and Ford (’08), p. 373. 
5 Burlingame (’08), p. 175. 
