542 Carruthers — O71 Fossil Coniferous Fruits. 



is 5^ inclies long, and nearly 2 in diameter. The apex is almost 

 perfect, but the base wants one or more whorls of scales ; the small 

 stalk referred to by Mantell is a portion of the axis from which the 

 absent scales have fallen. The cone is so much decayed on the outer 

 surface that the apices of the scales are mostly absent ; but a portion 

 which still retains some of the matrix in which it was preserved 

 seems to show the form of the apex. It was a flat scale like that of 

 Pinus Strobiis, L. but the superior margin had a tumid border, 

 without any terminal umbo. The scales in transverse section, as 

 exposed on the weathered surface, are sub -triangular as figured by 

 Mantell, and on the upper portion of our Fig. 5, Plate XX. The axis is 

 slender, and the scales on leaving it take at once their ascending 

 direction. The two narrow ovate seeds aye borne very near the base 

 of the scale, in a cavity sunk into it. The two cavities sho"\vn in 

 Fig. 5, are formed by the testa of the seeds, the contents having 

 disappeared. 



Mantell submitted a jolaster cast of this fossil to Brongniart, but as 

 might have been expected, that distinguished palaaontologist was 

 unable, with such materials, to deterrcine anything positive in regard 

 to it. Mantell had no hesitation in referring it to Zamia, as a fruit 

 of that genus, and every subsequent writer has followed him. The 

 fossil certainly belongs to the Finus division of the gemis, and 

 is near to Pinus Strohiis, L. 



The specimen which is, as far as I know, still unique, was found in 

 the Lower Greensand at Selmeston, Sussex, in a bed along with 

 water- worn fragments of stems and branches, which are generally 

 more or less perforated by boring mollusca. 



6. PiNlTES DUNKERI. 



Cone elongated cylindrical ; scales broad, with a rounded and thin apex; axis slender; 

 seeds oval compressed. 



AMetites DunJceri, Mant., Geol. Isle of Wight, 2nd Ed. p. 452, 3rd Ed. p. 337, 

 Lignographs 43 and 42, fig, 5. (exclude figs. 1-4 and 6, which belong to a 

 Cycadean fruit). Med. of Creation, p. 179, Lign, 61. 



There are six specimens of this species in the British Museum, 

 This is a very remarkable cone, little more than an inch in 

 diameter, yet attaining, according to Mantell, a length of thirteen 

 inches. The cones have generally opened before they were buried in 

 the sand in which they are preserved, and as the sand has penetrated 

 between the expanded scales, they are always broken when the 

 fossils are exposed, their apices still remaining in the piece of rock 

 which has been separated, just as the scales on the side of the cone 

 are seen to penetrate the rock in which the fossil is imbedded, 

 (Plate XX J, Fig. 2). This condition and aspect of the cone has led 

 Mantell into the error of supposing that it was furnished with large 

 foliaceous bracts, which he has rejoresented in his somewhat restored 

 figure in the ' Medals of Creation,' p. 179. I was fortunate enough 

 to remove the stony matrix from one of his specimens, which had 

 been buried unopened, and which exhibits the form of the scales 

 (Plate XXI, Fig. 1) . The apices are rhomb-shaped, but with the upper 



