An Extinct Antarctic Flora. 
190 
Zamites is used for several forms which agree much more closely 
with Ptilophyllum fronds than with Zamites as usually employed. 
Conifers are represented almost entirely by vegetative shoots, but 
the presence of Araucarian cone-scales of the Eutacta type is a 
feature of special interest; the seed-bearing scales are referred to 
Feistmantel’s Indian species Araucarites cutcliensis , but, as Halle 
points out, they also agree very closely with the English Jurassic 
species A. Brodiei Carr., not to mention other examples from 
South Africa, Scotland, and North America. Halle institutes a 
new genus Elatocladus for “ sterile Coniferous branches of the 
radial or dorsiventral type, which do not show any characters that 
permit them to be included in one of the genera instituted for 
more peculiar forms.” It is unfortunate that most of the generic 
names applied to fossil Coniferous shoots are based to a large 
extent on the cones, and these are frequently not preserved or 
occur apart from the vegetative branches. The nomenclature 
certainly needs revision. An objection to Halle’s generic term as 
he defines it, and one which is recognised by him as a possible 
drawback to its extended application, is that it includes forms with 
leaves of the Taxites type as well as branches with leaves like those 
of Sphenolepidium, Elatides, and other genera. An alternative plan 
is to retain Taxites in the wide sense in which it is used by most 
authors for twigs bearing linear and usually distichous leaves 
similar to those of Tax us, certain species of Podocarpus, Sequoia 
senipervirens, and other recent Conifers, and to adopt the name 
Pagiophyllum, for forms with radially disposed leaves like those of 
Elatides, Sphenolepidium, and Cheirolepis. A species of Elatocladus 
instituted by Halle (E. lieterophylla) affords an interesting example 
of dimorphic foliage which might well be compared with shoots of 
some recent species of the southern hemisphere genera Dacrydium 
and Podocarpus. 
There can be no doubt that, as Halle says, the Graham Land 
plants are relics of a Jurassic flora, though some of them are 
identified, and no doubt correctly identified, with Wealden species. 
Although there are some common Jurassic types which have not 
as yet been recorded from this Antarctic region, notably Ginkgo, 
Baiera, Plicenicopsis, Czekanowskia, and others, the occurrence of 
several ferns and gymnosperms specifically identical with Arctic, 
North European, North American, and Asiatic Jurassic plants is a 
remarkable testimony to the world-wide distribution of a Mesozoic 
flora. The phytogeographical and climatological problems em¬ 
phasized by this most recent contribution to Mesozoic Botany 
have not received the attention they deserve, and for this as for 
other reasons Dr. Halle’s critical work is especially welcome. 
The correlation of the Graham Land flora with that of East 
Yorkshire or with some of the Upper Gondwana floras of India 
cannot be regarded as necessarily carrying with it the implication 
that species common to Arctic, Antarctic, and other regions were 
in existence at the same time. As Huxley wrote, “There seems, 
then, no escape from the admission that neither physical geography 
nor palaeontology possesses any method by which the absolute 
synchronism of two strata can be demonstrated.” 
A. C SEWARD. 
