168 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. Cuap. VI. 
Peuce.—Another species of coniferous wood from the — 
coal is thus named; it differs from the former in the me- 
dullary rays being composed but of one layer of superposed t 
cells. 
AraucariteEs (Dadoxylon of Endlechen).—This term is em- 
ployed to designate the fossil wood whose structure is appa- 
rently identical with that of the living species of Araucarie, 
haying the same kind of medullary rays, and the ligneous 
fibres studded with discs or areole, which are polygonal, - 
often hexagonal, and disposed in several alternating series. 
This wood is common in the Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and 
Chalk. 
Drifted fragments of coniferous wood of this type occur 
in the Stonesfield slate, associated with leaves and fruits of 
cycadeze, and with marine shells, bones of reptiles, fishes, 
and mammalia ; at Scarborough, with the ferns and zamize 
previously described ; at Swindon, in the Portland oolite, 
with belemnites, ammonites, trigonize, &c. 
STERNBERGIA.—To the Araucarian tribe, according to 
the recent investigations of Professor Williamson, must be 
referred certain fossil stems found in the coal-measures, and 
named Sternbergie.* These are long solid cylindrical casts 
of sandstone or clay, with annular constrictions, which are 
generally invested with a thin film of carbonaceous matter ; 
when this crust is removed the surface is found to be 
marked with longitudinal ridges. These fossils were once 
supposed to be the stems of plants allied to Yucca or 
Draceena ; but, as was first shown by Mr. Dawson and Mr. 
Dawes,t they are merely sandstone casts of the medullary 
axis or cylinder of an extinct genus of conifere, allied 
to the Araucariz: a specimen in which the cast was 
admirable manner, but also form beautiful objects for the exhibition 
of polarization. 
* See Pictorial Atlas, pl. xviii. p. 53. 
+ On the Coal formation of Nova Scotia, Geol. Proc. 1846. 
