58 CONIFERAE. 



blance to recent coniferous forms is only in the habit. The branch bears 

 whorls of many leaves at considerable intervals ; there is no trace of the 

 scale-leaves crowded as in a bud, in the axils of which the double needles 

 are placed in the recent plant. Examination of the epidermis of the leaf in 

 the original specimen might perhaps give some means of judging how far 

 this is owing to the bad state of preservation. 



The type of the Sequoias is represented by a great number of remains 

 from the younger formations, and these we have been accustomed to consider 

 chiefly on Heer's authority l as different species of the genus Sequoia. Cones 

 are abundant, and are sometimes attached to their branches. It is true that 

 we are acquainted only with the outward appearance of these objects, and 

 doubts have recently arisen whether it would not be advisable to unite some 

 of them with other nearly allied genera, such as Arthrotaxis 2 . The folia- 

 tion connects the fossil forms quite naturally with the recent species of the 

 genus, with Sequoia sempervirens and S. gigantea. They extend from the 

 Pliocene formations, where they are widely diffused, to the Lower Chalk. 

 The most important species found in the Tertiaries, from the Eocene up- 

 wards, are the following : first, Sequoia Couttsiae, showing a foliation which 

 answers to that of our S. gigantea ; cones are figured by Saporta 3 , Schenk 4 , 

 and Heer 5 . But this very form is removed by Gardner to Arthrotaxis, 

 and is moreover divided into several species 6 . The specimens from Bovey 

 Tracy figured by Heer 7 are said by Gardner to be lost, and their identity 

 therefore with those examined by the latter cannot be ascertained, but those 

 from Hempsted are identical. Gardner adds: 'I think it highly probable 

 however that the species may be found not to be a true Sequoia, and the 

 danger is very apparent of giving the reins to the imagination and picturing 

 the slopes round the ancient Bovey water as clothed with woods composed 

 " mainly" of a huge coniferous tree, whose figure resembled in all probability 

 the Sequoia gigantea of California ' and the warning in existing circum- 

 stances is not out of place. Secondly, Sequoia Langsdorffii, Brongn. 

 figured by Schimper 8 ; Heer 9 gives the only representation known to me 

 of the cone-bearing branch, which is moreover by no means above sus- 

 picion. This species comes near the recent Sequoia sempervirens. Forms 

 of both kinds appear to have existed as early as the time of the Chalk, 

 namely S. Reichenbachii, Heer 10 , S. fastigiata, Stbg n , S. crispa, Vel. 12 be- 

 longing to the type oT S. gigantea, and S. Smithiana, Heer 13 to the type of 

 S. sempervirens ; and these different main forms have a number of other 

 forms grouped round them, but it would be foreign to the objects of this 



1 Heer (5). " Gardner (1) (1884). 3 de Saporta (8), p. 49 ; t. 2, f. 2. * Zittel (1), 



p. 297. 5 Heer (9), t. 59. Gardner (1) (1883), p. 38 ; (1884), p. 90. 7 Heer (ft). 



8 Schimper (1). Heer (11), vol. iii, L 146, f. 16. 10 Heer (7), t. i. " Velenovsky (1), 

 tt. 8, 10. ia Velenovsky (Ij, t. 10. 13 Heer (5). 



