TAXITES. NC:GGERATHIA, FOSSIL RESINS. 18] 
is peculiar to the Trias (Grés bigarré) or New Red deposits, 
and is one of the most characteristic of the fossil coniferze. 
The specimens first found were from Suitz-les-Bains, near 
_ Strasburg. The leaves are alternate, arranged spirally, ses- 
sile, and decurrent, and have much analogy with those of 
_ certain Araucarie. The fruits are oblong cones, with cunei- 
form scales, slightly imbricated, not contiguous, and gene- 
rally with from three to five lobes. 
TaxiTes.—Some branches found in the Stonesfield slate, 
and bearing a general resemblance to twigs of Yew (Taxus), 
_ are described under the above name, but their analogies are 
doubtful. _ (See ante, p. 145.) 
Naeceraruia.*—I must briefly notice the coal-plants 
which M. Brongniart has placed under this genus, because 
the foliage of some species appears to have entered largely 
into the formation of certain seams of coal, although the 
perfect form of the leaves is unknown. The foliage referred 
to Neggerathia consist of pinnated, or deeply pinnatifid, 
simple leaves. These leaves, or leaflets, are either elongated, 
linear, lanceolate, wedge-shaped or flabelliform, and entire, 
or deeply lobed at their extremity, and are traversed by 
numerous, fine, equal nerves, slightly diverging from the 
base, but almost parallel. The affinities of these plants are 
not satisfactorily made out: M. Brongniart considers them 
to approach nearest to the Cycads or Conifers ; perhaps 
_ forming a connecting tribe between those two great groups 
of gymnosperms. ft 
Fosstz Restvs.—AMBrer.—The resinous secretions of Co- 
nifers are occasionally found in a fossil state. When the 
tunnel was carried through Highgate Hill, in 1811, concre- 
tionary lumps of a brittle substance were discovered, which 
proved, upon analysis, to be the resin of a coniferous tree 
* A leaf of N. flabellata is figured in Foss. Flor. 
t+ Tab. Veg. Foss. p. 64. 
