CEDRUS LIBANI 
2U>K3 
7 
Two of these have been referred to the Cedar type. We entertain great doubt of either truly 
belonging to it; but as we are happily able to do so, we shall place figures of them before the reader, 
so as to enable him to judge for himself. 
The first of the cones in question, figs. 20, 21, 22 (we take that from the oldest geological formation 
first), is one which was found by the well-known deceased geologist, Mr. Mantell, in the lower greensand, 
at Maidstone in Kent. Fig. 20 shews the external surface of the cone : the hole at the base is occasioned 
by the breaking off of the stalk ; fig. 21 is a longitudinal section shewing 
the seeds embedded in the bases of the scales; and fig. 22 is an enlarged 
view of section of scale containing seed. Mantell figured and described 
it under the name Abies Benstedi '* considering it a form of Fir cone. 
It is now in the Natural Ffistory Museum at South Kensington; and 
Mr. Carruthers has drawn attention to it as more nearly approach¬ 
ing the Cedrus Atlantica in character ( Geological Magazine , vol. iii. 
p. 541, December 1866): “The position and shape of the seeds, the 
form of the scales, the shape of the exposed apices, and the general aspect of the cone are very like those 
of a Cedar. It may be compared with Pinus ( Cedrus ) Atlantica Endl.” We believe that the grounds 
on which Mr. Carruthers here specified Cedrus Atlantica rather than Cedrus Libani , were that the fossil 
cone more nearly approached the size of the cones of C. A tlantica than those of the other Cedars; for the 
cones of C. A tlantica are, as a rule, considerably smaller in size than either those of C. Libani or C. Deodar a. 
But the fossil is still much smaller than any Cedar cone, although the size of the seeds shews that it is 
full-grown. It leaves the impression, too, of having been of a more flexible and softer texture. Still 
there is considerable resemblance; the horizontally placed seeds and the abrupt bend up of the outer 
half of the scales (fig. 22) is quite Cedrine, and so is the appearance of the exterior at the apex. To 
assist the reader in comparing the two, we have added outline figures of sections of the cones of the 
different allied types with which it might be confounded, as the Cedar of Febanon (fig. 23), Silver 
Fir (fig. 24), Spruce (fig. 25), and Cluster Pine (fig. 26). 
Fig. 20. 
Fig. 22. 
Fig. 21. 
The truth seems to be that it may belong to some other Coniferous type which has not come down 
to us, out of which possibly the Cedar may have been developed; but we do not imagine that Abies 
Benstedi was really a Cedar. 
The second specimen was found in the brown coal of Radoboj in Croatia (which belongs to the 
- Lower 
* Mantell in Quarterly Journal Geological Society , vol. ii. p. 52, pi. ii., and referred to afterwards by Goeppert in his work on Fossil Coniferse, p. 217. 
[33] B2 
