t 
180 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. Cuap. VI. 
the Kentish-rag of Mr. Bensted’s quarry, near Maidstone, 
(ante, p. 173), and figured and described by me as Abies 
Benstedi, probably belongs to the coniferze of the Wealden, 
since it was associated with drifted bones of the Iguanodon. 
Fossin Cypresses.—The tribe of conifers called Cupressus 
or Cypress, (distinguished from the firs and pines by the 
leaves being mere scales, and the cones consisting of small 
wooded peltate bractex, and by other botanical characters,) 
including the Juniper and Arbor-vite, appears to have flou- 
rished during the whole of the secondary epochs ; for fossil 
leaves and stems referable to this family, but whose generic 
affinities cannot be determined with precision, have been 
found in the Trias, Lias, Oolite, and Wealden deposits. 
Tuuites Kurrianus. Lign. 62.—The 
Thuja or Arbor-vitze, a plant too well 
“known to require description, is the type — 
of the fossil plants distinguished by the ~ 
name of Zhuites. Many years since I~ 
discovered vestiges of branches and leaves — 
of some species of this genus, in the iron- " 
stone of the Wealden beds, at Heathfield — 
in Sussex (reol. S.H. p. 228) ; and of late, } 
many specimens have been found in strata — 
of the same formation in England and — 
Germany. The branch here figured, from 
SUES te the cabinet of S. H. Beckles, Esq. will serve © 
Tuvites KURRIANUSS +0 illustrate the appearance of these fossil 
plants. Some small fruits found in the 
ironstone of Heathfield may possibly be-_ 
long to Cypresses. The foliage and fruit of five or six distinet 
species of Thuites have been discovered in Tertiary strata. 
Voutrza.* (Wond. p. 547).—This extinct genus of plants 
Gr 
\) no 
: 
| 
| a 
vi il 
nat. 
Wealden. Hastings. 
* Named in honour of the late M. Voltz, of Strasburg, by whom 
they were first discovered. The specimens in the British Museum, © 
from my collection, were presented to me by M. Voltz. 
