414 



NA rURE 



\_March 3, 1881 



they are met -with : but are rarely associated with the 

 foliage figured as S. S/cnilvrgi, none having been found 

 at such important localities as Sotzka, Haring, Monte 

 Promina, and Bilin, where foliage abounds. This absence 

 of cones is very stron,,; negative evidence against their 

 foliage in the above localities at least being Sequoia, and in 

 favour of their being Araucaria. The cones of Araucaria 

 are few and large, shaken to pieces by the wind almost as 

 as soon as ripe, and when carried by water the flotation 

 of the winged seeds and of the foliage would differ enough 

 to lead to their being separately imbedded. The foliage 

 was described for years ss Arntwaritcs, and a well-defined 

 immature cone of Araucaria was found in the deposit at 

 Haring and figured by Sternberg ' and by Goeppert * as 

 Armicaritcs Goeppcrii, and afterwards considered by 

 Unger and Ettingshausen' to belong to A. Sternbergi. 

 Another small Araucaria-like cone is figured by Massa- 

 longo from Chiavon,'' which was found associated with 

 foliage identical with that from Bournemouth. Similar 

 foliage, but still nearer to Araucaria, is found at many 

 places in France, and in England at Sheppey, Bourne- 

 mouth, Bracklesham, the Isle of Wight, cic, but also 

 always without any Sequoia cones, although I have found 

 an AJaucaria cone at Sheppey. 



Against all this evidence we have to set the fact that a 

 branch with compressed cones attached has been found 

 in the Upper Miocene near Turin, and that Sequoia cones 

 are found in the same strata with somewhat similar 

 foliage in Iceland. In both these instances however the 

 foliage differs materially from the typical .5". Sternbergi oi 

 Sotzka. If we consider that foliage of existing species of 

 Araucaria, Sequoia, Cryptomeria, and Arthrotaxis can 

 with difficulty be distinguished, and that species which 

 have died out may have approached each other still more 

 closely, the evidence upon which Heer has changed the 

 determination of all the Austrian and German sp.-cimens 

 must appear insufficient. The possibly accidental simi- 

 larity, not identity, of foliage occurring in deposits far 

 apart and of widely different age, does not, I hold, out- 

 weigh the other facts I have advanced. 



This type of foliage, whether it belong to one or many 

 genera, has not been found of Tertiary age north of Ice- 

 land, nor in the newer Miocenes of Central Europe, if we 

 set aside two more than doubtful fragments from Oeningen. 

 It abounds however in England, France, Germany, and 

 Austria in Eocenes and Olijocenes, and recurs, as an 

 Upper Miocene form, in Italy only. 



The British Eocenes have been credited with several 

 Sequoias, as .S". Sternbergi and .y. Bowerbaiikii from 

 Sheppey, S. Langsdorjii horn. Mwxn Bay and Bournemouth, 

 .?. (ill Noyeri from Antrim, CSic, &c. There is, I believe, 

 no good evidence yet of the presence of any Sequoia 

 except .S". Couttsicr, confined to Bovey, Hempstead, and 

 perhaps Bournemouth, in any Tertiary rock of Great 

 Britain. This question however cannot here be profitably 

 discussed. S. Couttsia was originally described by Heer 

 from Bovey Tracey, where it literally abounded. The 

 foliage resembles that of S. gigantea, though smaller and 

 more delicate, and must have been very graceful; but 

 Heer's restoration of it, since copied into other works, is 

 very stiff" and unnatural. The foliage in the " Flora 

 fossilis arctica" is much coarser, and should not have 

 been referred to the same species. Saporta describes a 

 beautiful variety '' Potymorpha" from Armissan, in which 

 the ultimate branchlets take on the seinpervirens 

 character. S. Couttsia: seems to have been capable of 

 supporting considerably greater heat than any of the 

 other species, if we may judge from the associated 

 plants. 



The leading facts known to us respecting the past 

 history of the Sequoias may be summed up thus. They 

 are not known to be older than the Cretaceous, when they 



* " Verst.," V .1. ii. p. 204. PI 39, Fig. 4, 



^ "Monogr. fjss. Conif.." 1850, Haarlem Trans , p. 237, PI. 44, Fig 2. 



3 " Flora von Haring," p. 36. * " Specim. Photogr.," pi. xxi. 



were principally a northern form. The differentiation of 

 the existing types has progressed from that period to the 

 present, being slight in the Cretaceous (e.g. S. Rciclien- 

 bacliii); more pronounced in the Eocene {e.g.S. Couttsice 

 V. polymorpha)j yet more so in the Oligocene and 

 Miocene {S. Laiigsdorjii), and most so at the present day, 

 though even now there is a tendency to approach each 

 other. The number of fossil species should be consider- 

 ably reduced, and much of the supposed Sequoia foliage 

 transferred to other genera. The genus is known to 

 have ranged as far south as Central Europe during the 

 Cretaceous, seems to have retreated north during the 

 Lower and Lower Middle Eocenes, re-occupied its former 

 habitats in the L'pper Middle Eocene and Oligocene, first 

 through 6'. Conttsiee, and then through .5'. Langsdorjii, 

 and ranged into Italy during the Upper Miocene. It was 

 well-nigh exterminated during the Glacial epoch, and has 

 been strangely preserved in two isolated spots, perhaps 

 beyond its original range, where the moderating in- 

 fluence of the Pacific enabled it to survive on, or occupy 

 at a remote period lofty mountain spurs between the sites 

 of ancient glaciers. Fixed on exceptionably favourable 

 stations with congenial soil, the existing species may have 

 slowly adapted themselves to a temperature far more 

 genial than that supported by their polar ancestors, and, 

 in adapting themselves to an always increasing mildness, 

 have acquired that stupendous habit of growth which 

 makes them the giants of vegetation.' 



The moral to be drawn from the history of the Sequoias 

 is that we should not place implicit credence in the 

 minimum temperature of the so-called Miocene Green- 

 land, Spitzbergen, Vancouver's Isle, Sitka, and Arctic 

 America and Asia, as settled by Heer. Such bald 

 argument, as for instance that because Sequoia now 

 requires such and such a temperature, therefore former 

 but different species must have required the same, is 

 entitled to but little deference; yet Heer's facts and 

 opinions are quoted as axioms by a wide range of 

 workers. When examined they are seen to be disputable, 

 whether taken as physiological, geological, palEeonto- 

 logical, or any other data. Provisionally they were of 

 use, but the questions depending on the accuracy of the 

 data are so important and the evidence so intricate that 

 they should not be deemed settled until some greater 

 amount of care has been bestowed on them. 



J. Starkie Gardner 



GEOMETRICAL TEACHING-" 

 ■XirE are glad to see that the Association for the 

 *' Improvement of Geometrical Teaching has been 

 by~no means idle, though no report has been issued 

 since January, 1S7S, but that there has been a good deal 

 of silent work going on in the way of sub-committee dis- 

 cussions upon the several syllabuses of solid geometry, of 

 higher plane geometry, and of geometrical conies. All 

 who know the president will lieartily sympathise with him 

 in his bereavement, and will understand how unfitted he 

 must have been for any other work than that which his 

 position at Harrow imperatively required of him. He 

 has now thrown himself with much energy into the cause, 

 and proof of his interest in the labours of the Association 

 is manifest throughout the interesting address which is 

 printed on pp. 12-17 of this Report. It is well known 

 that he has long advocated an extension of the scope of 

 the Association, and in this address he takes the oppor- 

 tunity of putting his views w ell forward. 



" It was doubtless well at the outset of our work to 

 concentrate our attention and confine our efforts to the 

 definite field, in which perhaps the need for improvement 



' If we can really trace back the history of S. fflgaiiha to fossil forms, it 

 becomes curious to notice that it is only now appr. aching 5. Couttsia^ the 

 type which there is reason to believe formerly supported the highest tempera- 

 lure of any Tertiary Sequoia. 



' Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching. Seventh 

 General Report, January', iS8i. 



