62 DESCRIPTION OF FOSSIL TREES DISCOVERED 



the name Pence as the generic title of all fossil wood " that appears abso- 

 lutely coniferous." In describing the species which they have done me the 

 honour of naming Pence Wiihami, and which very closely resembles the 

 plant which I have named Pinites ambiguus, they have detailed the pecu- 

 liar characters of the genus, which are precisely those exhibited by the fossil 

 stem or branch described above. I have reason to think that the Peuce 

 Withami is in reality a Pinites, and that the figures represented by the 

 learned authors of the Fossil Flora, were taken from a distorted portion of 

 the fossil, of which I have presented the regular and perfectly preserved 

 tissue in Plate X. Figs. 2, 4, 5, and which I conceive to be of the same 

 species as Pinites JBrandlingi. It seems to me to be only when the 

 cellules of the woody tissue are perfectly straight, that these plants exhibit 

 unaltered their reticulated or areolar markings. Whatever maybe the fate 

 of Peuce Withami, I trust the characters of the plant above described as 

 occurring in the Whitby lias, are not liable to misrepresentation. In this 

 hope, and considering the species less liable to dispute than almost any 

 which I have examined, I take the liberty, usually acceded to the first de- 

 scriber of a species, and bestow upon it the name of Peuce Lindleii. 



The plant represented by Fig. 9- of Plate XIV, is also represented in 

 its longitudinal sections by Figs. 4, and 5, of Plate XV, which are from a 

 fragment possessing similar characters, although not from the same spot. 



Fig. 4. Represents portions of five of the woody fibres or elongated 

 cellules in their most perfect state. The general appearance of sections 

 made in this direction is confused, the walls appearing as if covered with 

 minute granules or areolae as in Fig. 5 ; but in one small portion the ap- 

 pearance here exhibited was presented. The areolae are precisely those of 

 our recent Coniferae ; circular, of two concentric lines, transparent in the 

 centre, a little depressed when close to each other, but generally separated, 

 sometimes to a great distance. Part of one of the medullary rays is seen 

 in the figure. This and the next figure are magnified in a higher degree 

 than the preceding three. 



Fig. 5. Is part of a longitudinal slice cut parallel to the bark, and re- 

 presents several of the elongated cellules, having their walls covered with 



