PINES IN THE LIGNITES. 159 



in fig. 340 were evidently not quite ripe, and they were enclosed 

 in an ovo-conical cone 38 millimetres (or about 1J inch) in 

 length. Most of the cones of the mountain-pine which have 

 come under Prof. Heer^s inspection are also not quite ripe, the 

 seeds not being fully developed. But the scales represented in 

 figs. 334, 335, and 336 were from a perfectly ripe cone. Fig. 

 335 shows a scale from the outside, with its convex shield and 

 the boss in the middle of the latter. Fig. 334 shows a scale 

 from the inside, with its two seeds, the wings of which are not 

 quite twice as long as the nucule and are bluntly rounded at 

 the apex. This cone is 40 millimetres (or T57 inch) in length, 

 oval, somewhat unsymmetrical, the shields on one side being 

 slightly developed, whilst on the other they project nearly in 

 the form of hooks. In certain smaller cones the hooks project 

 still more, are bent downwards, and have an excentric boss. 

 In their short oval form and convex shields these cones most 

 nearly resemble those of the decumbent pine (P. montana hu- 

 milis) of the Swiss mountains, and differ from the hooked pine 

 (P. montana uncinata) and the bog-pine (P. montana uliginosa) 

 by the smaller development of their hooks. But as the length 

 of these hooks is very variable, and it is impossible to ascertain 

 whether this pine was a tree or a bush, it cannot be referred 

 with certainty to any of the numerous subordinate forms of the 

 mountain-pine. It belongs, however, to the Pinus montana, 

 and under this head agrees most closely with the Pinus montana 

 humilis. All the carbonized twigs densely covered with leaf- 

 needles that Prof. Heer has hitherto seen from Utznach belong 

 to the mountain-pine, as is proved by their stouter needles, less 

 pointed at the end (fig. 338). The pine-trunks, as thick as the 

 body of a man, which have been found in the lignites of Utznach 

 Diirnten, and Wetzikon, on the contrary, belong in all proba- 

 bility to the common pine. 



Hence it is manifest that at this early period the two species 

 of Swiss pines were already in existence. Even if they do not 

 perfectly agree with the living types, so that they cannot with 

 absolute certainty be referred to any of the numerous forms into 

 which these trees have been developed, yet the two species, 

 which are so nearlv related to one another, move within the 



