378 FOSSIL FRUIT RELATED TO PANDANEiE. 



This family of Plants seems destined, like the Cocoa nut 

 Palm, to be among the first vegetable Colonists of new lands 

 just emerging from the ocean ; they are found together al- 

 most universally by navigators on the rising Coral islands 

 of tropical seas. We have just been considering the history 

 of the fossil stems of Cycadese in the Isle of Portland, from 

 which we learn that Plants of that now extra-European fa- 

 mily were natives of Britain, during the period of the Oolite 

 formation. The unique and beautiful fossil fruit represented 

 in our figures (Plate 63, Figs. 2, 3, 4,) aflx)rds piT)bable evi- 

 dence of the existence of another tropical family nearly allied 

 to the Pandaneae at the commencement of the great OoUtic 

 series in the Secondary formations.* 



In structure this fossil Fruit approaches nearer to Pan- 

 danus than to any other living plant, and viewing the peculia- 

 rities of the fruit of Pandaneas,-]- in connexion with the office 



* This fossil was found by the late Mr. Page, of Bisbport near Bristol, 

 in the lower region of the Inferior Oolite formation on the E. of Charmouth,^ 

 Dorset, and is now in. the Oxford Museum. The size of this Fruit is that 

 of a large orange, its surface is occupied by a stellated covering or Epicar- 

 piuni, composed of hexagonal Tubercles, forming tlie summits of cells,^ 

 which occupy the entire circumference of the fruit. (Figs. 2, a. 3, a. 4, 

 a. 8, a.) 



Within each cell is contained a single seed, resembling a small grain of 

 Rice more or less compressed, and usually hexagonal, Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. 

 Where the Epicarpium is removed, the points of the seeds are seen, thickly 

 studded over the surface of tlie fruit, (Fig. 2, 3, e.) The Bases of the cells 

 (Fig. 3 and 10 c.) are separated from the receptacle, by a congeries of foot- 

 stalks (d) formed of a dense mass of fibres, resembling the fibres beneath 

 the base of the seeds of the modern Pandanus (Fig. 13, 14, 15, d.) As this, 

 position of the seeds upon foot-stalks composed of long rigid fibres, at a dis- 

 tance from the receptacle, is a character that exists in no other family than 

 the Pandaneje, we are herein' enabled to connect our ibssil fruit with this 

 remarkable tribe of plants, as a new genus, Foducarya. I owe the sugges- 

 tion of this name, and much of my information on this subject, to tlie kind- 

 ness of my friend, Mr. Robert Brown. 



■j- The large spherical fruit of Pandanus, hanging on its parent tree is 

 represented at PI. 63, Fig. 1. Fig. 11 is the summit of one of the many 

 Drupes into which this fruit is usually divided. Each cell when not bar- 

 ren contains a single oblong slender seed; the cells in each drupe vary 



