GYMNOSPERM/E. 



85 



two or three together, without foot-stalks, spherical and terminal, with loose scales fringed 

 at the edges. There are from three to five seeds under each scale, with slight mem- 

 branous wings. The leaves are in five rows, irregularly four-sided, sickle-shaped, acutely 

 pointed, decurrent, and persistent. The tree is large and evergreen. 



Cryptomeria Sternbergii, Goeppert, sp. Plate X, figs. 2, 3, 10 — 13; Plates XX 



and XXI. 



Araucarites Sternbergii, Goeppert (pars). Ettingshausen, Die Eocane-Flora des 



Moute Promina, p. 12, pi. v, 1855. 



Sequoia Sternbergi, Heer. Flora foss. Arctica, vol. iii, part 3, pi. ii, figs. 1 — 4, p. 



10, 1874, &c. 



— Du-No-YERi, Baily. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxv, p. 361, pi. xv, fig. 4, 



1869. 



Basaltic Pormation, Ballypalady and Glenarm, County Antrim ; and the Isles of Mull 

 and Canna. 



The leaves are spirally arranged, crowded, four to seven millimetres in length, decur- 

 rent, and somewhat expanded at the base, quitting the stem at an angle of about 40°, 

 falcate or faintly spathulate, tapering to the extremity, very variable, sometimes apparently 

 imbricate, more often needle-like.^ The branchlets, densely clothed with leaves, are irre- 

 gular or alternate, fork copiously at acute angles, presenting a somewhat tufted growth, 

 and were shed in short lengths separately from the cones. The cones sub-globose, and 

 averaging from fifteen to twenty millimetres in diameter, are composed of numerous per- 

 sistent, loose, apparently sub-ligneous scales, which all diverge from a point near the base 

 of the cone and are clothed externally with spiny, bract-like appendages. 



The cones were shed after the escape of the seed, with the scales gaping and permitting 

 the matrix to enter between them. When found they almost invariably split down the 

 centre, leaving half on each face of the stone so as to present a longitudinal section (PI. 

 XX, figs. 8, 9, 13). Only the inner faces of the scales are thus exposed, and these 

 are seen to be striated, with roughly-fringed edges. When the impression of the exterior 

 of the cone has been bared with a needle, six or eight spirally-arranged scales become 

 visible. These are seen to be quite constricted at the base, then gradually widening until 

 they fan out suddenly to a diameter of six or seven millimetres, after which they again con- 

 tract so as to terminate in the form of a slightly-pointed arch. They are crossed exteriorly 

 at the widest part by a deep but narrow scar, in the centre of which is a pit marking the 

 position of a central spine or bract which has projected into the matrix at right angles. 

 The entire scale is grooved or furrowed parallel to its lateral margins, and deeply cut or 

 fringed along the superior one, the segments of this fringe being often slightly subdivided. 



^ The leaves appear shorter and blunter when pressed against the stem than in profile, owing to the 

 extremities breaking away with the matrix. 



12 



