. Fossil plants : for students of botany and geology . Paleobotany. 258 AEATTCAEINEAE [CH. being cavities in the proximal portion of the scales in which the seeds were embedded. Numerous imbricate scales are attached laterally to the central region and partially hidden in the matrix. The scales are approximately 1-7 cm. broad and slightly winged. The single seed on each scale, the general form of the cone, the shape of the individual scales, and the occurrence of sterile scales at the base of the axis are features in which the fossil is practically identical with recent forms. Fig. 739 shows a
. Fossil plants : for students of botany and geology . Paleobotany. 258 AEATTCAEINEAE [CH. being cavities in the proximal portion of the scales in which the seeds were embedded. Numerous imbricate scales are attached laterally to the central region and partially hidden in the matrix. The scales are approximately 1-7 cm. broad and slightly winged. The single seed on each scale, the general form of the cone, the shape of the individual scales, and the occurrence of sterile scales at the base of the axis are features in which the fossil is practically identical with recent forms. Fig. 739 shows a piece of a smaller. Tig. 739. Araucaritea ooliticus. A, Scale in surface-view showing the projecting end of a seed. B, Scale seen from the proximal end showing the seed-cavity. C, part of cone. (Northampton Museum; nat. size.) cone (in the Northampton Museum), of the same type; this specimen shows the appearance of the scales in end-view (C), in surf ace-view (A), and as seen from the proximal end with the seed-cavity (B). In fig. 739, A, the base of a seed is seen projecting from the middle of the laterally expanded scale. An oblong-ovate cone described by Carruthers^ from the Coralline Oolite at Malton, Yorkshire, as Araucarites Hudlestoni is probably another example of this species: in one of the specimens of A. Hudlestoni in the York Museum a broad central region is occupied by a mass of pisolite to which numerous cone-scales are attached. The scales are shown in section and in several of them there is a single seed lying in a cavity occupying the proximal end of the scale precisely as in ^. ooliticus. It is possible that A. ooliticus is specifically identical with A. spJiae- rocarpus; it is at least a closely allied type. The specimen figured by Lindley and Hutton^ as Strobilites Bucklandi appears to be indistinguishable from A. ooliticus. Similar cones are illustrated by Araucarites Cleminshawi Mansell- 1 Carruthers (77); Seward (04) B. p. 133. ^ Lindley and Hutton (34)
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishercambr, bookyear1898
