(j^^J l^^- 



gymnospermt^:. 91 



indication of the position of the scales on the axis, and their formation seems somewhat 

 different. I do not therefore at present feel that the material would justify the transfer 

 of the Bovey specimens to another genus, especially as their reference to Sequoia has 

 been very widely accepted in text-books, and the supposed presence of a representative 

 of the giant trees of California made the basis of much speculation and inference. I 

 think it highly probable, however, that the species may be found not to be a true Sequoia, 

 and the danger is very apparent of giving the reins to the imagination and picturing 

 the slopes round the ancient Bovey water as clothed with woods composed " mainly of 

 a huge coniferous tree {Sequoia Couttsia), whose figure resembled in all probability its 

 highly admired cousin, the Sequoia {Wellingtonio) gigantea, Lindl., of California."^ If 

 the supposed Wellingtonia should prove to be but a marsh-loving plant, as the supposed 

 tree-ferns of " imposing grandeur " have proved to be but humble Osmundas, how 

 completely at variance must the actual appearance of the vegetation have been to that so 

 graphically described in Heer and Pengelly's work. 



The Hordwell specimens are indistinguishable from Athrotaxis cupressoides of 

 Tasmania, " a small erect tree, from twenty to thirty feet high, much branched, and with 

 numerous branchlets, which are slender, spreading or pendulous, and cylindrical."^ " It 

 is found at Lake St. Claire and along Pine River, in Tasmania, and is tolerably hardy." 

 The Atlirotaxides form a small genus, allied to Sequoia, now entirely confined to Tasmania. 

 The fact that the species are little known and are still rare in herbaria has no doubt 

 prevented hitherto the reference of any fossils to the genus. The occurrence of two 

 undoubted and almost unaltered species in our Eocene is not a little singular, and of 

 great significance. 



Incert^ Sedis. 



Two other Coniferae, at least, are known to me from British Eocenes, but both too 

 imperfectly to even guess the genera to which they might belong. They are both from 

 the Lower Eocene, respecting whose Eloras our knowledge is so scanty, that it would be 

 of great interest to ascertain more concerning them. The first is from Reading, and is a 

 Conifer not dissimilar in appearance and habit to the Bournemouth specimen of Taxodium 

 eoccenum figured on Plate VII, fig. 3. The second is from the Park-hill cutting at 

 Croydon, and is like, but far more slender than, the Athrotaxis just described, from 

 Hordwell. A fossil completely identical with it is named Glgptostrobus gracillimus by 

 Lesquereux, from the Cretaceous of Dakota. It is worth while calling especial attention 

 to this fact, as so many of our Lower-Eocene plants have representatives in that Flora. 

 A few specimens from the Eocene or Oligocene of Central Europe, referred generally to 

 Widdringtonia, almost rival it in delicacy ; but, so far as I am aware, no existing Conifer 

 has such slender foliage. 



' " Flora of Bovey," ' Phil. Trans.,' 18G2. 2 Gordon's ' Pinetum,' p. 47, 1880. 



