ABIETITES DUNKERI. 179 
_ the eminent geologist who has so successfully and diligently 
explored the Wealden of the North of Germany. 
I have been so fortunate as to collect 
from thirty to forty specimens of these 
fruits of the conifers of the country of 
the Iguanodon, associated with trunks 
and branches, and imperfect vestiges of 
single lanceolate leaves. 
Axpietites Dunxert. Lign. 61,—These 
cones are of a cylindrical form, and great- 
ly elongated: the largest specimen is 
_ thirteen inches in length, and but three 
"inches in circumference. The scales are 
broad, slightly convex without and con- ( 
_ ¢ave within, obovate or subrotund, with 
-@ prominent midrib, edges thin and 
entire. Leaves solitary, slender, slight- 
ly curved, from 1 inch to 1} inch in 
length. The cones were garnished with 
bractez, which are seen on the margins 
of the fossil when imbedded in the rock, ° ‘Mex. 61. 
Whether the foliage that forms the con- Ween ee 
Stituent substance of a large proportion 3 nat. 
of the bituminous coal of Hanover (ante, | Te eae cae 
p. 74), and which has been figured and _ of the bractex. : 
named by Dr. Dunker A bietites Linkii, belongs to the same 
Species of Fir as these cones, I am unable to determine. The 
Seeds are of an ovate form: the pericarp is in the state of 
carbon, and filled or lined with pyrites or calce-spar. 
These cones are generally found more or less pyritified, and 
are extremely beautiful objects when first collected ; but like 
the fruits from the Isle of Sheppey, similarly mineralized, 
often decompose, in spite of every precaution, after exposure 
to the air but for a few weeks. 
A small sub-ovate fir-cone found with coniferous wood in 
