Cretaceous Plant Ophioglossum granulatum , Heer. 905 
that the external features alone of the present specimen are enough to 
suggest that it is simply a three-leaved (possibly four- or five-leaved) pine 
with its male cone. In the original specimen a number of the ‘ granules 
with which the axis of the fruit spike is invested ’ appeared to me to hold 
promise of showing some structure. One of these 4 granules ’ Dr. Britton 
generously allowed me to remove with the point of a knife. The c granules ’ 
are evidently the crushed sporophylls and sporangia, and after treatment 
and clearing the fragment liberated a number of spores which could be well 
studied under the microscope. Most of them, of course, were crushed or 
contracted, but a considerable proportion showed their structure remarkably 
well, and, as is shown in Fig. 2, bear such a close resemblance to the 
winged pollen spores of Pinus that there can be little doubt that this is 
their true nature. A duplicate specimen, which Dr. Britton kindly pre¬ 
sented to me, also yielded similar spores. 
Fig. 1 shows the actual size of the male cone, which is about 35 mm. 
long. It is thus larger than is usual 
among the species of Pinus common in this 
country; but several species of North 
American and Mexican pines have cones 
nearly as long, and P. australis , Michx., from 
Florida has o* cones very similar to the fossil 
except that they are more massive. There 
is thus no discrepancy as regards size of the 
cone between fossil and living members of 
the genus. 
These facts should suffice to establish 
the true nature of the American 4 Ophio¬ 
glossum and the generic name must be eliminated. The specific name 
should be retained for the plant unless the male cones are shown to 
belong to any previously established species of Pinus. This specific name 
might also with advantage be made to cover the three-leaved pine-leaf- 
fascicles from the same deposit described by Newberry as Pinus sp. ?, for 
there is every chance that they belong to the same plant. 
Pinus granulata, (Heer) nov. comb., may be defined as:—male cones of 
Pinus about i'*5~3*5 cm. long, slender, with or without attachment to leafy 
axis, which appears to be a three-leaved form. Pollen grains with two 
rounded 4 wings ’. 
Cretaceous, Amboy Clays, U.S.A., and Patoot beds, Greenland. 
Though it is my conviction that the cones of Heer belong to a different 
species of Pine, I do not propose now to add another name to the over¬ 
burdened palaeobotanical literature, because it is perfectly possible that they 
do represent younger cones of the same thing, and in any case they are 
so imperfect that they are of little value. 
Fig. 2. Pollen grains from the 
4 granules ’ of the original speci¬ 
men of Newberry’s Fig. 13. These 
show the two wings clearly. 
