358 PEOCEEDIlJrGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



(1) Basalt, 15 feet ; (2) brown earth, 3 inches ; (3) layer of 

 impure earthy lignite, 8 to 12 inches ; (4) brown and red bole or 

 earth becoming red at the lower portion and passing into the plant- 

 layer, no. 5; (5) plant-layer, 4 to 8 inches thick; (6) conglo- 

 merate bed, principally composed of ironstone nodules, probable 

 thickness 10 or 12 feet ; (7) rails resting on basalt. 



The condition in which these plant-remains are found is not 

 qiute sc^ favourable for determination as that of those from the Isle of 

 Mull : the fossils under consideration occur in a red clay, some 

 parts of which are more or less arenaceous ; the impressions, although 

 preserving the outline of the leaf, do not in many cases show clearly 

 the important character of venation*. 



In addition to the specimens obtained by Mr. Du Noyer, a large 

 number were collected by Mr. M'Henry, also of the Geological Survey, 

 many of them from another part of the same railway-cutting ; and 

 although the series contains some well-defined examples of the ve- 

 getation of the period, it does not include a very great variety of 

 forms. 



The only specimen in which the generic character can be decided 

 upon with any degree of certainty is that of a Fir-cone, named by 

 me Pinus Plutonis, PI. XY. fig. 1, a & 6 ; this cone may be compared 

 with that of the Pinus pinaster or Cluster Pine, especially to the 

 variety maritimus, the fruit of which is composed of large and hard 

 scales t ; in the collection are also many fragments of the branches 

 of another coniferous tree, the stem of which was covered with 

 small elongated tapering leaves, PI. XY. fig. 4, a & 6. I have named 

 this Sequoia Du Noyeri^ in memory of the lamented gentleman to 

 whom we owe the discovery of thia plant-bed. It resembles very 

 closely Sequoia Sternbergi, ITeer J, from Iceland, but differs in the 

 relative size and closer arrangement of the leaves on the stem. The 

 only recent oxample with which I had an opportunity of comparing 

 it was Sequoia senvpervirens, the Ked Cedar of California ; the more 

 open arrangement of the leaves on the branches of that tree offers, 

 however, a closer comparison with the fossil plant from the Isle of 

 Mull, doubtfully referred by Professor Porbes to Taxites § ; I think 



* In reply to a remark made during the discussion on this paper, at the read- 

 ing of which the author was unavoidably absent, he begs to state that whilst 

 fully impressed with the desirability of using great caution in the determination 

 of species from insufficient data, he feels quite justified in applying names to such 

 specimens as the Sequoia, Pinus, and Cupressites, with respect to the generic 

 affinities of which there can be but little doubt ; the remaining specimens, prin- 

 cipally leaves, he did not attempt to identify positively, but, after careful com- 

 parison with the works of linger, Massalongo, Heer, &c., merely ventured to 

 suggest the possibility of their belonging to certain genera and species figured by 

 those authors from probably contemporaneous deposits. In reference to this 

 subject the author would beg to refer to Prof. Forbes's remarks on the fossil plants 

 he named from the Isle of Mull, anticipating an objection of this kind, in his 

 note to the Duke of Argyll's paper before cited. 



t These cones, which must have been at least 3 inches long, are called by the 

 workmen employed in excavating the iron-ore " Firs ; " they occur in a black 

 carbonized condition, and are said by them to be not unfrequent. 



X Flora Possihs Arctica, p. 140, pi. 24. fig. 9. 



§ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. pi. 2. fig. 1. 



