40 



BRITISH EOCENE FLORA. 



S. CoidtsicB is rare in the dark clays and " Marine beds " of Bournemouth and the 

 concretionary ledges of Gurnet Bay, but very abundant at Bovey-Tracey and Hempstead. 



Sequoia Tournalii, Brongt. (sp.). Plate V, figs. 1 — 12. 



Taxites Tournalii, Brngt. Prodr., pp. 188, 214, 1828. 

 Cham^cypakites Haedtii. Ettingsh. Flora von Haring, 1855. 

 Sequoia Hardtii, Heer. Lignite of Bovey-Tracey, p. 35, 1863. 



Tournalii, Saporta. Etudes sur la V^ge'tation du S.-E. de Fr. a TEpoqiie 

 Tert., part 2, p. 196, 1866. 



Middle Bagshot, Bournemouth. 



The foliage in this species appears to have been distichous on the barren, and closely 

 imbricated on the fertile branchlets. The distichous foliage is like that of the Cupressus 

 from the same locality, but much larger, coarser, more irregular, and of thicker 

 substance. The longest leaflets measure twenty-two millimiitres, are nearly parallel- 

 sided, and terminate in a bluntly mucronate point. They are not in opposite pairs, and 

 are irregular in size, an occasional leaflet appearing almost aborted. The specimens show 

 that the distichous foliage did not continue uninterruptedly for any considerable distance, 

 but frequently alternated with the imbricated type, resembling in this respect many 

 existing Coniferae, and especially S. semjjervirens. The imbricated shoots figured (PI. 

 V) seem entire and articulated at the base, and are as large as any yet met with. They 

 are densely clothed with short, closely imbricated leaflets, either falcate or spinous at the 

 apex, and are preserved as deeply and sharply imprinted hollow casts, from which every 

 vestige of colour has disappeared. They present perfect intaglio impressions, which are 

 in some respects more satisfactory than those whose substance is partly preserved, for in 

 these the stem frequently splits in two, and an inaccurate idea of the foliage is thereby 

 conveyed. Fig. 1 shows the arrangement of the branchlets to have been irregular. 

 These, unlike those of the Cupressus of the same beds, were often shed compound. 



There is no direct evidence to connect this Conifer with any particular tribe, but it 

 more nearly resembles the living Sequoia sempervirens than any other species, and seems 

 indistinguishable from foliage met with at Aix, in Provence, to which well-preserved 

 Sequoia cones are attached. There can be no doubt but that the small imbricated 

 shoot on fig. 3 is actually attached to the branchlet, and fig, 1 also shows imbricated 

 foliage at its base ; and this evidence is confirmatory of the view that the two kinds, 

 which are found together, belong to the same species, while Saporta has found far more 

 perfect specimens at Aix (a flora exhibiting the greatest affinity to ours), which exhibit 

 the same combination. 



