II 6 
Slopes.- — An Early Type of the 
according to the region of the growth zone the elements cross. Where the 
largest spring tracheides are crossed there are one or two vertical rows 
of three pits per tracheide-field ; while in the later-formed wood there 
is generally a single vertical pair (see/., Text-fig. 3, and PL IV, Fig. 3, and 
contrast these with /., Text-fig. 2). In some places these pits are clearly 
bordered, as is shown both in the photograph and the text-figures ; in 
others they have the appearance of being simple pits. The Abietinean 
pitting ’ of the end walls can often be very clearly seen in tangential 
sections (see ep., Text-fig. 4, and PI. IV, Fig. 4). 
Comparison with other Fossils. 
No living family has the mixture of 
characters described, and I am aware of no 
previously described fossil with which this 
fossil is identical. 
The form described by Gothan as Cedro - 
xylon transiens (see Gothan, 1907 and 1910) is 
perhaps the nearest to it among those pre- 
viously recorded. Reference to this has already 
been made on pp. 114, 115. In many respects 
also the new fossil resembles his Protocedro - 
xylon araucarioides (Gothan, 1910). Both these 
fossils have ‘ Abietinean pitting ’ in the medul- 
lary ray cell walls, and both have alternating 
pits in the tracheide walls in the spring wood, 
which Gothan describes as being quite Arau- 
carian in character. Further comparison with 
and reference to these two fossils will follow. 
In the several American forms described 
as showing a mixture of Araucarian and 
Abietinean pitting, the ‘ Araucarian ’ features 
-m. 
Text-fig. 4. Planoxylon Hectori , 
sp. nov. Tangential section showing 
the end walls of the medullary rays 
and their pitting, ep. m., the cells 
of the ray cut across, t ., tracheide. 
[Slide No. 52823^, Brit. Mus. (Nat. 
Hist.).] 
are so often only represented in the tracheide- 
pittings, and there is so subtle a form as to satisfy only the describers of 
the feature. These tracheide-pits are in single rows, often even isolated, 
and are often quite round pits which have nothing to distinguish them 
from ordinary Abietinean tracheides save the reported absence of ‘ Sanio’s 
rims’, a now exploded criterion. With our species it is remotely possible 
that Jeffrey’s Arancariopitys americana is to some degree allied (see 
Jeffrey, 1907), since he describes it as possessing a mixture of Araucarian 
and Abietinean characters. The tracheides of his plant, however, have 
round, bordered pits in a single row, and the wood has numerous resin 
canals ; and, further, as his specimens are twigs they can scarcely be 
compared reliably with our large New Zealand trunk, in any case. 
