I-AUGEST AND TALLEST LIVING CONIFERjE. 
Iterated twenty species of fossil Coniferae 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 shewn by Mr. Nicol, 
(Edin. New. Phil. Journal, January, 18.34) that 
Some of the most ancient fossil Conifers^ may be 
deferred to the existing genus Pinus, and others 
to that of Araucaria ; the latter of these compre- 
hends some of the tidiest among living trees, (see 
El. 1, Fig. 1) and is best known in the Araucaria 
®xcelsa, 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 
t^oniferse, having near aflfinities to the Araucaria and Cunning- 
I'amia. Branches, leaves, and cones of this genus are most 
abundant at Sultz les Bains, near Strasburgh. 
Mr. Withani reckons eight species of Coniferse among the 
fossil woods of the Lias ; and five species, of which four are 
allied to the existing genus Thuia, occur in the Oolite formation 
Stonesfield. (See Ad. Brongniart’s Prod, page 200). For 
%m’es of Cones from the Lias and Green-sand near Lyme 
®gis, and the Inferior oolite of Northamptonshire, see Lindley 
Hutton’s Fossil Flora, Plates 89, 135, 137. 
fir. Fitton has described and figured two very beautiful and 
perfect cones, one from Purbeck ? and one from the Hastings 
®and. Geol. Trans. 2nd Series, Vol. iv. PI. 22, Figs. 9, 10. p. 
and 230. 
