it therefore very possible that fossil may have belonged to the same genus[1].
A small cone is perhaps the fruit of the fossil I have figured as Sequoia Du Noyeri. Fragments of other fossils such as that drawn on Pl. XV. fig. 5,a & b, I have referred to Cupressites, naming the species C. MacHenrii: the imbricated character due to the peculiar arrangement of the leaves on the terminal branches is very evident in some specimens, resembling very closely that of the ordinary Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens.
A large proportion of these fossils consists of leaves of Dicotyledonous plants, the principal varieties being shown on Pl. XIV. Most abundant amongst them are ovate and acuminate leaves, with entire or non-serrate margins, and a simple character of venation (Pl. XIV. figs. 7, 8); they resemble so nearly some of the species of Rhamnus figured by Prof. A. Massalongo in 'Flora Fossile Senigalliese, and by Dr. Oswald Heer in 'Flora Fossils Arctica,' as to induce the belief in the probability of their generic identity, and of their having belonged to trees or shrubs of the Rhamnaceæ or Buckthorn Order. Some linear-lanceolate leaves, having entire margins and a strong midrib, on which, however, no other trace of venation is perceptible (Pl. XIV. figs. 3, 4), are so much like those figured by Massalongo under the names of Olea and Andromeda, as to have probably belongedto the Order Oleaceæ.
A large ovate leaf (Pl. XIV. fig. 2) having an obsoletely serrated margin is comparable with species of Fagus figured by both Massalongo and Heer, approaching very closely to Fagus incerta, Massal.[2] Other leaves (Pl. XIV. figs. 5, 6), tapering at each extremity and having closely arranged ribs and a non-serrated margin, resemble some forms of Quercus, such as Q. nereifolia, in 'Flora Foss. Senigalliese, pl. 31. f. 6, and the evergreen oak, Q. ilex.
Parallel-ribbed stems or leaves of Endogenous plants, such as may have belonged to Sedges or Grasses, are not unfrequent in the collection.
A large mass of fossil wood partially oxidized was procured from the bed with iron-ore; it exhibits the structure very clearly, and is evidently dicotyledonous[3].
Several fruit- or seed-vessels of different kinds, some of which are shown on Pl. XIV. figs. 9–13, occur in the same bed, as well as a few remains of insects, two very small elytra or wing-cases of beetles of
- ↑ Since the above paper was read, I find on looking into Sir Charles Lyell's 'Elements of Geology,' sixth edition (1865), that in his account of the Isle-of- Mull leaf-beds he mentions, on the authority of Professor Heer, Sequoia Langsdorfii as being the most prevalent conifer in those beds. The figures he gives of that species on pp. 261 & 262 are so much like the fossil alluded to above, and named by Forbes Taxites? Campbelli, that it is doubtless the species he identifies with S. Langsdorfii, and this is confirmatory of the remarks I had offered in the above paper, before seeing this paragraph, as to the probability of its belonging to the genus Sequoia.
- ↑ 'Flora Fossile Senigalliese,' pl. 33. fig. 6.
- ↑ Since writing the above I have been enabled to examine this fossil wood with the microscope and to make out distinctly its coniferous structure, as shown in the enlarged representations, Pl. XV. fig. 3, a & b.
