LARGEST AND TALLEST LIVING CONIFER/E. 485 
merated twenty species of fossil Coniferse in 
strata of the Tertiary series. Many of these last 
approach more closely to existing Genera than 
those in the secondary strata, and some are re- 
ferrible to them. 
It has been further shown by Mr. Nicol, 
(Edin. New Phil. Journal, January, 1834) that 
some of the most ancient fossil Coniferae may be 
referred to the existing genus Pinus, and others 
to that of Araucaria ; the latter of these compre- 
hends some of the tallest among living trees, (see 
PI. 1, Fig. 1) and is best known in the Araucaria 
excelsa, or Norfolk Island Pine. 
These discoveries are highly important, as 
they afford examples among the earliest remains 
of vegetable life, of identity in minute details of 
internal organization, between the most ancient 
sandstone of the Vosges, four species of Voltzia, a new genus of 
Coniferse, having near affinities to the Araucaria and Cunning- 
hamia. Branches, leaves, and cones of this genus are most 
abundant at Sultz les Bains, near Strasburgh. 
Mr. Witham reckons eight species of Coniferse among the 
fossil woods of the Lias ; and five species, of which four are 
alhed to the existing genus Thuia, occur in the OoUte formation 
of Stonesfield. (See Ad. Brongniart's Prod, page 200). For 
figures of Cones from the Lias and Green-sand near Lyme 
Regis, and the Inferior oolite of Northamptonshire, see Lindley 
and Hutton's Fossil Flora, Plates 89, 135, 137. 
Dr. Fitton has described and figured two very beautiful and 
perfect cones, one from Purbeck ? and one from the Hastings 
sand. Geol. Trans. 2nd Series, Vol. iv. PI. 22, Figs. 9, 10. p. 
181 and 230. 
