with Descriptions of ifi w Sj „ , \ /, 8 qf Jp\ ml I ' \ 7 



deuce is so close with the plant figured by Heer, that he wonld 

 doubtless consider them as identical, and, in the absence 

 distinctive characters, I have thought best to regard them ae 

 the same. I am strongly inclined to believe, however, that 

 the leaves before me were derived from a tree more closely 

 allied to our deciduous cypress than to our Bpi ' Smu 



and that, whatever its generic affinities may have been, itfl 

 foliage was deciduous. 



A large number of fragments of a shaly, argillaceous lime- 

 stone were brought in by Dr. Hayden, which are filled, and 

 their surfaces covered, by disconnected branchlets with their 

 leaves attached, and which present the appearance of having 

 been thrown down together precisely as the deciduous branch' 

 lets of our cypress are detached by the frost. Among tl 

 are a few pieces of larger branchlets, bearing traces of short, 

 appressed leaves, which I have conjectured to be the perma- 

 nent foliage of the tree. These branches Bhow, at regular 

 intervals, the former points of attachment of deciduous i branch- 

 lets, but none of them are still in their places. They may have 

 been dead twigs; some of which would naturally fall and accu- 

 mulate with the leaves. The leaf-bearing branchlets, too, are 

 always simple, and though lying together in great Dumb 

 crossing at every angle, they are wholly distinct and discon- 

 nected. The probability would therefore seem to U\ that tin- 

 foliage of the tree was deciduous, and although we 1 

 yet no fruit to guide us, we may infer that it was nol 

 but a Taxodium, closely allied to, and perhaps the progenitor 

 of T. distichum. 



It has been said above that the leaves of Sequ ia La 

 dot'Jii, Heer, are very like those under c but 



if Prof. Heer is correct in considering the plants figured by 

 Unger as Taxites Langsdarfii I Econograpbia 1 1 brill, k. k. 



Acad. iv. 1852, S. 103, Taf. xxwiii. figs. 12 16 tical 



with that figured by him (loc. cit), we should have additi 

 evidence that these fossils, collected by I>r. Hayden, an 



