Recent and Fossil Cwiiferce. \^^ 



the lapidary permission to take off for Mr Witham one trans- 

 verse section only. The first two single rows of discs in the 

 figure to the left, are represented as each displaying two bold 

 concentric circles ; whereas in the sections I have made, the discs 

 are altogether so very obscure, that they can scarcely be seen. 

 There is only one row of double discs in the figure, and the discs 

 are irregular circles ; whereas, in my sections, the double* rows 

 are by far the most frequent, and the discs are all decidedly 

 polygons. In page 61 of the 2d edition, we are told that " the 

 cellules are very regular, and present generally one, sometimes 

 two, series of circular glands or areolae, which are precisely si- 

 milar to those of recent Coniferae; and that the only difference is, 

 that, in the latter, the areolae are always in single series, whereas 

 here they are sometimes in double series, as in the fossil genus 

 Pinites.*" By stating that the areolae, or discs, as I call them, 

 are precisely similar to those of recent Coniferae, it is evident that 

 the writer of the book was not only ignorant of the fact that the 

 areolae are circular in the Pines, and partly polygonal in the 

 Araucarias, but also that double rows of discs are of frequent oc- 

 currence in the recent as well as in the fossil Coniferae. The ge- 

 nus Pinites must therefore be rejected, if better characters can- 

 not be found for it. Perhaps it may be thought that I have 

 been too prolix on this part of the subject, but I con^der it ne- 

 cessary, to guard the scientific world against placing too much 

 reliance on a work, containing so many inaccuracies. 



In the lias formation in the vicinity of Whitby, we have at 

 least three fossil Coniferae, differing in their characters from one 

 another. The first, which is siliceous, resembles the Araucarias, 

 in having no distinct annual layers ; the second resembles the 

 Pines, in having annual layers, and also in having similar discs 

 similarly arranged ; and the third, resembling the Pines in hav- 

 ing annual layers, but differing from them in having polygonal 

 discs arranged in double rows, the discs in one row alternating 

 with those in the other ; yet the writer of the book alluded to 

 states, that all the longitudinal sections he has seen of the 

 Whitby lias fossils are so similar in their characters, that he can 

 only say of them that they all belong to the genus Peucc. If 

 60, the genus Pence must be a very heterogeneous one. 



I might here point out the characters of some other fossil 



