FOSSIL WOOD. 283 



the ducts or glands characteristic of the Coniferae, 

 and arranged in alternate rows as in the Araucaria 

 or Norfolk Island Pine.* The annular lines of 

 growth are often very distinct ; I have traced from 

 thirty to forty on some of the stems. These 

 circles are of unequal thickness, and therefore in- 

 dicate a variation from year to year in the climate 

 of the country in which they grew. They are, too, 

 as small as in the slow growing pines and firs of 

 England. Many of the stems exhibit an obli- 

 quity in the annular lines, proving that they grew 

 in situations which exposed the trees to prevailing 

 currents of wind from a particular quarter, and 

 caused them to incline in the opposite direction. 

 I have discovered no vestiges either of the foliage 

 or fruit. It is remarkable that coniferous wood 

 occurs but sparingly, if at all, in the Wealden 

 deposits of the south-east of England ; but drifted 

 stems and branches of pines of the araucarian 

 type, are common in some of the upper beds of 

 the greensand, and are occasionally met with in 

 chalk flints.j- 



Such is a brief description of the accumu- 

 lation of fossil trees at Brook Point, which evi- 

 dently originated in a raft composed of a prostrate 



* See Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 71. 

 t Medals, vol. i. p. 168. 



