250 Carruthers — On Fossil Araucarian Cones. 



fossils, and the name of its original possessor has disappeared from 

 the " Clergy List " since 1850, so that I do not know where to seek 

 for it. 



The two species may he thus characterised : — 



1. Araucaria (Eutacta) sphcerocarpa, no v. sp. Cone spherical. Scales 

 rhomboidal, with a central ridge produced into a stout, somewhat 

 reflexed spine, and an obvious furrow dividing the scale into an 

 upper and lower portion. Twenty to twenty-four scales in each 

 spiral series in the centre of the cone. (Plate XI., Fig. 1). 



Log. From the Inferior Oolite, Bruton, Somersetshire. 



2. Araucaria [Eutacta) Pippingfordiensis, (Zamiostrohus Pippingfor- 

 diensis, Ung. " G-enera et Species Plantarum Fossilium," p. 300.) 

 Cone oblong, gradually decreasing towards the blunt apex. Scales 

 rhomboidal, with a prominent central ridge, and an obvious furrow 

 dividing the scale into an upper and lower portion. Fourteen to 

 sixteen scales in each spiral series in the centre of the cone. Trans. 

 Geol. Soc. 2nd Ser. (Plate xxii., fig. 10.) 



Loc. From the Wealden, m a mass of hard greenish grit at 

 Pippingford, in Ashdown Forest, very near the highest point of the 

 ridge of the Hastings Sands. 



The only specimen oiA. splnerocarpa jet found (Plate XI.) was ob- 

 tained from a bed of marine limestone. It is noticed by Sir Charles 

 Lyell in the last edition of his " Elements," where a woodcut is given, 

 but without any description. The detached cone has been floated out to 

 sea, where, having sunk, it has been partially buried in the cal- 

 careous mud among the remaias of Serpulcs and Mollusca. The 

 spaces between the scales have first been filled with calcareous 

 matter, shown in the figure by the irregular white lines separating 

 the scales. The organism having decayed, the upper portion is 

 entirely lost; but calcareous mud having been deposited in the 

 mould of the buried portion a remarkably perfect impression of 

 that half of the cone remains. The base is imj)erfect ; the two 

 or three series of basal scales, which are more or less triangular in 

 outline, are wanting. There is no indication of any stalk. The 

 draughtsman of the woodcut, in Ly ell's " Elements," has mistaken 

 a frag-ment of a shell for the stalk, and has given, in his restoration, 

 an aspect to the cone unlike any known Araucarian. The upper 

 portion of the cone is more perfect, and exhibits the change in form 

 of scales observed in recent cones. (Compare Plate XL, Fig. 5, one of 

 the apical scales, with Fig. 6, a similar scale, from the cone of A. 

 Bidioilli, Hook.) The fossil is five inches long, and as many inches 

 broad at its widest part. There are fifteen of the sj)iral series of 

 scales from left to right, and ten from right to left. The apex of 

 the scale is a rhomboid. It is divided into two unequal portions by 

 a transverse scar ; the lower and larger half has been furnished 

 with a strong and somewhat reflexed sj)ine. A fracture in two of 

 the scales on the upper left-hand portion of the fossil, figured of 

 the natural size at Fig. 5, shows that the scar is superficial, and that 

 each scale supports a single seed. 



Dr. Fitton figured A. Pippingfordiensis, and, without giving it a 



