96 



BRITISH EOCENE FLORA. 



by Goeppert, already referred to (p. 57), is oval and elongated and clothed with bracts, 



and appears more like that of Araucaria than of Doliostrobus. 

 A cone from the same locality sent to me by Ettingshausen 

 (Fig. 37) is smaller and romid, and agrees exactly with those 

 described by Marion. Both kinds of foliage, as well as detached 

 scales, are also met with, and there can be no reasonable 

 doubt that the same or a closely similar species of Doliostro- 

 FiG. 37.— Cone of BoUostrobus hus occurs at Hilring at least. Marion informs me that Heer 



Sternhergii, from Hiiring. i i • i • 



had accepted his conclusions, although he still maintained that 

 the second cone from Chiavon ^ belonged to a different genus. I do not see at present 

 any reason for modifying my former views regarding it, and leave it and the associated 

 foliage, together with that from Bournemouth, in Araucaria. Doliostrobus is un- 

 doubtedly a very ancient form, and it may be a descendant of Fachyphyllum as surmised 

 by Marion, as, indeed, may also be our Sheppey Athrotaxis. The genus is also 

 present in the Upper Cretaceous of Patoot, for scales described as Dammara are 

 associated with foliage called Sequoia." There need be no difficulty in admitting that 

 Araucaria grew contemporaneously with it in Europe, as the former has actually been 

 traced in France as high as the Upper Senonian. 



Had the fossil been a living plant, it would probably have been placed in Agathis 

 notwithstanding that no similar foliage had previously been met with in that genus; for we 

 find in Araucaria that a species is not excluded because the scales are persistent. As 

 at present defined, however, Agathis is characterised by the persistence of its scales, and 

 a fossil species with deciduous scales cannot therefore be included in it. 



All the specimens have been collected by Mr. E. A'Court Smith, and they number at 

 least thirty or forty. He writes that they are found from the very base of the Bembridge 

 Marls upwards, almost wherever vegetable remains occur; and specimens I have seen 

 are in matrices of all shades of colour, red, yellow, grey, white, and fawn. The finest 

 occur in septarian concretions, of an ochreous brown externally and pale fawn colour 

 inside, with an extremely fine grain. The septaria are irregularly scattered, from half a 

 foot to two feet in length, with a somewhat conchoidal and very uncertain fracture. 

 The branclilets occur on the exterior as well as in the interior, being best preserved in 

 the latter case. The leaves and stems are in a shrunken carbonised state in hollow 

 cavities, which seem to be exact moulds of the Conifer as it was when first embedded. 

 The stone is often stained for a short distance, a ferruginous brown margining the 

 contour of the mould. The branches are generally slightly compressed horizontally, 

 but sometimes lie vertically squeezed along the cracks. The origin of these blocks 

 which seem to have segregated round the vegetable remains presents an interesting 

 problem. It is clear that they became cracked or fissured while still soft, the lines 

 of fissure following in two cases the thickest stems, and that the compression 

 1 See p. 57. ^ ' Flora Arctica,' vol. vii, pi. liii. 



