544 W. Carruthers — On the Secondary ConifercB. 



is existing or extinct, and so, to some extent, the nature of the 

 evidence upon which it has been established. 



Thus, in the section Finea of the genus Finns, to which the species 

 described in this paper belongs, Parlatore enumerates fifty-four 

 species, seventeen of which are natives of the old world and thirty- 

 four of the new world, the larger number being found in the moun- 

 taia ranges which run between the Eocky Mountains and the 

 western shore of North America, and all are confined to the Northern 

 Hemisphere. Schimper describes sixty-nine fossil species belonging 

 to the same section of the genus, and these he allocates between the 

 subsections of Finea, viz., Finaster and Tceda. The thickened 

 apophyses of the scale of the cone with its central umbo is sufficient 

 to distinguish this section from the Cembra group, which has a 

 terminal umbo to the cone-scale, or the Sapinus group, which has 

 the apex of the scale not thickened. But the cones supply no 

 character in dividing the section Finea. The subsections are based 

 upon the number of leaves included within the sheath. As these 

 are variable in the same plant, I doubt whether the distinction is 

 of much value among recent plants. But how can the subsectional 

 characters be detected in the sixty-nine fossils, fourteen only of 

 which have the foliage associated with the cones ? It is certain that 

 the cones do not supply any appreciable distinction, so that one 

 cannot allocate a series of cones without foliage. To be more exact 

 than the specimen peimits is a real error, and is likely to introduce 

 more serious injury into geological reasoning than the more vague, 

 though more truthful, estimate of the affinities of the plant. 



The disposal by Schimper of the British pines justifies these obser- 

 vations. The only cone which he has placed in the Finea section is 

 Finites Flutonis, Baily; but an examination of Baily's drawing 

 will show that his imperfect cone belongs — as far as the characters 

 are exhibited — to the section Cembra ; for the scales want the central 

 umbo, and have a "semi-circular ridge" (Baily), almost terminating 

 the apophyses. The separate scale figured by Baily, and which he 

 thinks most probably belongs to this species, is of course excluded 

 in my estimate of the position of the cone, as the characters given 

 in the drawing are at variance with those shown in the scales of the 

 cone itself. The remaining cones supposed to have thickened 

 apophyses found in the United Kingdom are placed together as 

 " Si^ecies incertee sedis." But the figures and descriptions I have 

 given of them show that P. macroceplialus, Carr., F. ovatus, Carr., 

 F. Fittoni, Carr., and F. gracilis, Carr., belong to the Finea section ; 

 while F. dejectus (depressus), Carr., is as truly a member of the 

 Sapinus section as F. Mantellii, Carr., which is placed there ; and 

 F. Sussexiensis, Carr., should probably be referred to tlie section 

 Cembra. "Without foliage, however, and even, in many cases, with- 

 out perfect cones, it is not, as it seems to me, desirable to refer 

 unhesitatingly these cones to the sections into which the species of 

 the genus now living on the globe have been grouped. 

 EXPLANATION OF PLATE XV. 



Pinites hexagonus, sp. nov., natural size, and outline restoration from the specimen 

 in the cabinet of J. S. Gardner, Esq., E.G.S. ; Gault, Folkestone. 



