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PINITES RUFFORDI, FROM THE ENGLISH WEALDEN FORMATION. 419 
of this species; if the interpretation of the sections is correct, 
this character constitutes a striking peculiarity in the structure 
of Pinites Conwentzianus. Passing to Jurassic and Lower 
Cretaceous strata, we find Pinites well represented; from the 
Rhetic beds of Sweden, Nathorst * has described some struc- 
tureless specimens of the genus, and a species of Pityoxylon is 
recorded from the Trias of Germany. In a recent monograph 
on fossil wood from the Holma Sandstone of Sweden, Conwentz 
describes some fairly well-preserved specimens of wood referred 
to the genus Pinites. Although coniferous wood is by no means 
rare in Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous rocks, it is 
seldom that we find specimens with the minute structure 
clearly preserved. Mantell, Carruthers, Gardner, and others, 
have recorded several examples of cones from Wealden beds 
as species of Pinites; and more recently another species has 
been discovered in tke Wealden rocks near Hastings, which 
shows cones and leaf-bearing branches in organic connection.t 
The fossil wood of the so-called “ Pine raft” of Brook Point, 
in the Isle of Wight, has long been known to geologists; but, 
as a rule, the specimens from this locality do not admit of 
any accurate diagnosis by means of microscopical examination. 
In Dixon’s ‘ Geology of Sussex,’ Carruthers ¢ speaks of certain 
specimens of Wealden fossil wood as possessing a structure 
similar to that of recent species of the genus Pinus. In the 
‘Geological Magazine’ for 1872, p. 10, the same author figures 
two sections of a piece of ‘ Pine wood” from the Wealden of 
the Isle of Wight. An examination of the specimens now in 
the British Museum leads me to regard Carruthers’s plant as 
a distinct species. 
As a specific designation for the fossil wood described below, 
I have ventured to make use of Mr. Rufford’s name; it is 
to him we are indebted for the type specimen, and for the 
large and valuable collection of Wealden plants recently 
acquired by the British Museum. The material obtained by 
Mr. Rufford from Ecclesbourne, Fairlight, and other localities 
in the neighbourhood of Hastings, has enabled us to con- 
siderably extend our knowledge of the Wealden flora. In 
* Bidr. Sveriges foss. flora, in Svensk. Vet.-Akad Handl., vol. xiv., n. 3 
(1876) p. 62-64. 
t+ Wealden Flora (vol. ii., p. 196), Brit. Mus. Cat., 1895. 
Tt ‘Geol. Sussex,’ edit. II. p. 279. 
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