484 
FOSSIL CONIFERjE, 
terized, not only by peculiarities in their fructi- 
fication (as Gymnospermom phamrogamiee)* but 
also by certain remarkable arrangements in the 
structure of their wood, whereby the smallest 
fragment may be identified. 
Recent microscopic examinations of fossil 
woods have led to the recognition of an internal 
structure, resembling that of existing Conifer®? 
in the trunks of large trees, both in the Carboni- 
ferous series,! throughout the Secondary 
formations and M. Ad. Brongniart has enn- 
* We owe to Mr. Brown, the important discovery, that Coni- 
fer® and Cycadesc are the only two families of plants that have 
their seeds originally naked, and not enclosed within an Ovary- 
(see Appendix to Captain King’s Voyage to Australia). They 
have for this reason been arranged in a distinct order, as GyW' 
nospermous Phanerogamim. This peculiarity in the Ovulum i® 
accompanied throughout both these families, by peculiarities in 
the internal structure of their stems, in which they differ from 
almost all dicotyledonous plants, and in some respects also from 
each other. 
The recognition of these peculiar characters in the structure of 
the stem, is especially important to the Geological Botanist, be- 
cause the stems of plants are often the only parts which are found 
preserved in a fossil state. 
t The occurrence of large coniferous trees in strata of the 
great Coal formation, was first announced in Mr. Witham’s Fossil 
Vegetables, 1831. It was here stated that the higher and more 
complex organizations of Conifer® exist in the Coal fields of 
Edinburgh and Newcastle, in strata which till lately have been 
supposed to contain only the simpler forms of vegetable struc- 
ture. 
J In the lower region of the Secondary strata, M. Ad. Brong' 
niart has enumerated, among the fossil plants of the New 
