540 W. CarrutJiers — On the Secondary Coniferce. 



superficial. Since these Cirques also assign a far liigher antiquity 

 to the principal physical features of a mountain region than the 

 upholders of the Glacier erosion theory appear to admit, and since 

 " rain and rivers " have been restricted to no particular geological 

 epoch, they, working "without haste, but without rest," may well 

 have hewn out in the long lapse of ages the present shapely contours 

 of hill and valley from the blocks left ready to their hands by other 

 natural forces. 



m. — On Two Undescribed Conipekotjs Fruits from the Secondary 

 EocKs of Britain.^ 



By "William Carruthers, P.E.S., F.G.S. 



(PLATE XV.) 



IT is a singular coincidence that in a former communication to this 

 Magazine (Vol. VI., p. 1) I described, among other Coniferous 

 fruits, two from the Gault at Folkestone, the one the cone of a pine, 

 and the other of a Wellingtonia, and that in this communication I 

 propose to describe two hitherto unknown fruits from the same 

 deposit and found at the same locality, belonging also the one to a 

 Wellingtonia and the other to a pine. Although the small pine- 

 cone already described [Pinites gracilis) differs in form and in the 

 arrangement of the scales from any known cone, recent or fossil, it 

 is more nearly related to that group of the section Finea, the mem- 

 bers of which are now associated with the Wellingtonias in the 

 west of North America, than with any other member of the great 

 genus Finns. 1, however, hesitated to refer to this interesting fact, 

 because the occurrence of the two cones in the Gault might have 

 been due to their being accidentally brought into the same silt by 

 rivers having widely separated drainage areas. And it is easier to 

 keep back generalizations based on imperfect data, than to suppress 

 them after publication, when in the progress of investigation they 

 are shown to be false. But I have now to describe a second j)ine- 

 cone more closely related to the Californian species of Finea, and 

 with it a new species of Wellingtonia. These surely point with 

 tolerable certainty to the existence of a Coniferous vegetation on the 

 high lands of the Upper Cretaceous period having a fades similar 

 to that now existing in the mountains on the west of North 

 America, between the thirtieth and fortieth parallels of latitude. 

 No fossil referable to Sequoia has hitherto been found in strata older 

 than the Gault, and here on the first appearance of the genus we 

 find it associated with pines of the same group that now flourish by 

 its side in the New World. 



Finites hexagonus, sp. nov. (Plate XV.) Cone elongate-oblong, 

 decreasing equally from the middle towards the similarly-formed 

 and truncate base and apex. Apophyses of the scales hexagonal 

 throughout, thickened, scarcely elevated towards the central umbo, 



^ This paper is supplementary to one published in Vol. VI. of the Geological 

 Magazine, at page 1. 



