GYMNOSPERMiE. 



95 



the slabs are numbers of detached scales very variable in form, more elongate, mucronate, 

 and striate, but in other respects resembling ours (fig. 5, Plate XXII). The cones to 

 which they belonged were terminal and 

 attained a leno;th of 4 centimetres. The 

 scales and seeds were shed when ripe, 

 and the axis remained firmly attached to 

 the branch. Dr. Marion has obtained 

 specimens, not only of the axis wholly 

 and partially stripped, but of entire 

 cones accidentally detached before fully 

 mature. The seeds were free and 

 winged on one side only, precisely as in 

 Agathis. 



In this, as in other instances, our 

 own insufficient data have been supple- 

 mented by more ample material from 

 other countries. The foliage from the 

 Isle of Wight, identified by careful com- 

 parison, not of drawings only but of 

 actual specimens, with foliage from the 

 same horizon in Prance, has enabled us 

 to determine the true nature of the plant to which it belonged with almost as much 

 precision as if the fruiting organs had also been found at Gurnet Bay ; thus the inference 

 we should probably have come to independently, is verified. The Prench deposits were 

 lacustrine, and everything that fell on the water in due time sank and became mingled 

 together. In the moving water, which deposited the Bembridge and Hempstead muds, 

 we can only suppose that the light and dry scales and seeds, though shed in profusion, 

 were carried far away by the stream, however sluggish, or stranded on adjacent shores by 

 the breeze. 



Though we may feel confidence in the identification of this species with the Prench 

 form, it is not so certain when comparison is made farther afield. A similar, 

 but far more robust form of foliage has been noticed from the much older beds of 

 Bournemouth, and identified with Araucaria CmmingUami, though a distinctive name 

 was retained for the fossil (Plate XII). We have also foliage closely resembhng it in 

 Cryptomeria Slernhergii (Plate XXI), though the former can be distinguished by its 

 larger and less tufted appearance and wider angles of divergence, and in Athrotaxis 

 mhulata (Plate XI). 



It is impossible, however, to attempt to apportion the published drawings and 

 descriptions of similar foliage from other Tertiary deposits of Europe, often of unknown 

 age, to these four species. The cone from Haring, originally figured by Sternberg and 



Fig. 36. — Slab comprising the bare axis of a cone, sonic loose 

 scales, and a seed ; Ceylas. From a drawing communicated 

 by Dr. Marion. 



