FROM THE SECONDARY ROCKS OF BRITAIN. 3 
spadices are converted into peltate or flat pedicellate scales, spirally 
arranged around a common axis, and forming a cone. The pedicel's 
of the scales are placed at a right angle to the axis, or very nearly so 
and in all the genera, except Dion* the scales are peltate, and not 
imbricate. Each spadix or scale supports two seeds whirl, hang free 
from the peltate apex (Plate LIX. Fig. 9 and 10), on either side of 
the pedicel. In Dion the spadices are flat scales forming an imbricated 
cone, which Lmdlcy, the author of the genus, says, is « almost undis- 
tmguishable " from the cone of Araucaria. We can scarcely see any 
point that the two cones have in common, except that they are cones 
1 he Araucarian cone has firm, sessile, smooth scales, each bearino- a 
single adnate seed, while in the cone of Dion, the scales are competed 
of lax tissue, pedicellate, and covered with a dense and copious wool, 
and each supports two free seeds. 
Three kinds of fruit are found in the Conifer*. First, the cone of 
the Abietinea, composed of imbricated sessile scales, generally re- 
garded as flat and open carpels, each of which bears one or two seeds 
lying on its surface, at or towards the base, and is subtended by an- 
other scale, considered to be a bract. Second, the cone of the Cu- 
premnea, composed of induraled peltate scales, or, sometimes fleshy 
with the scales concreted so as to form a kind of drupe. One or more 
winged seeds are supported on each scale. Thirdly, the drupaceous 
or nut-like fruit of Taxinea, with its single terminal seed. The fruit 
of Taxing and the drupe-like fruit of some Q^nmnem cannot be 
confounded with the cones of tycadece. The form of scale the 
arrangement of the scales on the cone, and the number and pos'itioa 
of the seeds, are obvious diversities whereby to distinguish the indu- 
rated cone of the remaining Qipremnw from that of Cycadea; • while 
the sessile, flat, imbricated scale, bearing the seeds adnate to its upper 
surface, clearly separates the cone of the Abietinea. Any difficulty in 
determining the affinity of a cone by its external characters can easily 
be solved, as to whether it is Coniferous, Cycadean, or Proteaceous, by 
a transverse section, which would show, if the structure is even a little 
preserved, the form of the scale, and the position of the seed 
* e may further add that the scales of the Cycadean cone have a 
* Lindley spelled this word Dion, omitting the second o, after the eiamnle 
correct. 
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