22 



BRITISH EOCENE ELORA. 



worthy that nearly all fossil Callitres show a great amount of variability in this respect, 

 relatively to recent species. Bow^erbank's species were founded on unique specimens ; 

 but now that these are supplemented, the connection between them has become apparent. 

 All those still preserved have gaped and shed their seed before fossilisation, but Bower- 

 bank had before him an example in which the valves were still closed.^ 



This type of Callitris belongs to the Frenela section, and is most nearly represented 

 at the present day by C. australis, a tree growing sixty or seventy feet high, and found 

 on the East Coast of New Holland and in Van Dieman's Land, and by 

 C. robusta. I have observed many of these trees thoroughly acclimatised 

 in ]\Iadeira, and find that the cones are very abundant, and in some 

 species exceptionally persistent after shedding seed, remaining in rings 

 or clusters on the thick branches, and even round the trunks, from 

 Yia. z.—CaUdns -^vi^ich they can onlv be detached by aid of a sharp knife. None were 



australis. J v J 1 



lying under the trees, and only solitary cones on comparatively slender 

 foot-stalks could possibly get removed, so that even in districts where the tree grows 

 thickly no fruits of some of the species would be deposited amongst other vegetable 

 remains. The normal number of six valves, three of which are almost always less 

 developed, is not infrequently reduced to five. 



These fruits are rare at Sheppey, about one in 2000 ; and their determination is so far 

 satisfactory that they can be referred to no other section of the Coniferge. Ettingshausen 

 was mistaken ('Proceedings Roy. See.,' 1879), in supposing the species occurs at 

 Alum Bay ; the fruit accepted for it being oval, smooth, with only two valves, and 

 on a slender, naked, dichotomous stem, and therefore quite unlike any fruit of the 

 Cupressinese. Emits with three, four, and five valves are figured from Sheppey, the 

 last being the most abundant. 



Callitris Ettingshauseni, sp. nov. Plate IX, figs. 1 — 6. 

 London Clay, Isle of Sheppey. 



The cone is nearly globular, twelve to fifteen millimetres in diameter, composed of 

 either six or eight valvate scales, every alternate one being oblong obtuse, and the rest 

 short oval-lanceolate, and also obtuse, forming at the apex a tesselate cruciform design, 

 which is striking and distinctive. The arrangement of the valves is identical with that of 

 the closed cones of some species belonging to the section Frenela, and like no other known 



1 This, described as C. Comptonii, was from the Marquis of Northampton's collection, and, together 

 ■with those formerly in the Canterbury Museum, no longer exists. All the other originals are in the 

 British Museum. 



