GYMNOSPBRMtE. 



41 



Saporta considers S. Tournalii to approach the most nearly of any fossil species to the 

 existing 8. senipervirens. Short and simple branchlcts, appearing naturally detached, are 

 often fomid at Armissan, covered with the same loosely squamiform leaves, but termi- 

 nating in short ramifications, or rather peduncles of cones which have been shed. These 

 were in clusters of three to seven, or more rarely singly or in twos, while the cones of 

 the existing Sequoia always occur singly. In the river-deposits of Bournemouth the 

 cones must have been floated away by the moving water and deposited elsewhere, for no 

 trace of them has yet been discovered. 



All the specimens figured, except 9 and 12, are from the uppermost "Coastguard- 

 beds." Fig. 12 is from the " Myrica-bed," and fig. 9 from near Poole. 



Sequoia Langsdorfii, Brop(/n. (sp.). Plate X, figs. 1,\ a. 



Taxites Lanosdoefii, Brovg. Prodr., pp. 108, 208, 1828. 



Taxites ? Campbellii, Forces. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. vii, p. 103, pi. ii, 



fig. 1 a, h, 1851. 



Sequoia Langsdorfii, Heer. Fl. Tert. Helv., vol. i, p. 54, pi. xx, fig. 2 ; xxi, fig. 4, 



1859. 



Eocene, Isle of Mull. 



The branchlets are irregularly alternate, rather distant, about three centimetres broad 

 and nine centimetres long. The stem of the branch is clothed with very long, distant, 

 scale-like leaflets, closely adpressed for two thirds of their length, and then looser, shortly 

 acute or falciform. The base of each branchlet is clothed for a short distance with 

 somewhat crowded, smafl, scale-like leaflets ; on the rest of the branchlets, the leaflets 

 become for the greater part of their length linear-lanceolate, pointed, rather distant, flat, 

 nearly straight, with a distichous arrangement. The apex of the branchlet is in no case 

 quite preserved, but the termination seems to have been abrupt or truncated, and in a 

 sort of leaf-bud. The expanded portions of the leaflets measure six to nine millimetres 

 in length, and their texture seems to have been leathery and the midrib well defined. 



Although the figure of this specimen, described as Taxites ? Camjjhel/ii, represents 

 small, undeveloped, scale-like decurrent leaflets lying along the stem between the expanded 

 leaflets, none can be now recognised in the specimen. The enlargement shows that 

 every leaflet is fully developed and twisted cither to the right or left, every third or 

 fifth having its base in the centre of the stem, and its blade pressed to one side or the 

 other. The pressure during fossilisation has led to the appearance of a secondary growth 

 of undeveloped leaves, and the black and coaly consistence of the fossil has helped to 

 mislead the artist of the plate in question. It is remarkable that all the Coniferse from 

 Alum Bay and Bournemouth with similar foliage possess the very characteristics attri- 



6 



