1. PINITES LECKENBYI, sp. nov. Plate I. Figs. 1-5.

Cone oblong ovoid, with an obtuse or subtruncate apex; scales very broad, not thickened at the apex; seeds small ovoid.

LocalityLower Greensand of Shanklin, Isle of Wight.

This beautiful cone forms part of the collection of John Leckenby, Esq., FG.S., Scarborough. It is preserved in its original form, and so perfectly fossilised, that the various details of its structure can be determined as satisfactorily as in a recent cone. It is 4 inches long, and 2 inches broad. There is still attached to it a portion of the branch which supported it, represented on Fig. 4. The structure of the interior, as disclosed in the longitudinal section (Fig. 2) agrees in every character of importance with that of the cone of Pinus Cedrus, Linn. The scales are marked with parallel striæ, curving upwards and outwards from the base (Fig. 3). Several of the seeds exhibit the embryo in the centre of the albumen, and in one the section is so made as to show the divisions of the Cotyledons (Fig. 5). That this structure may be the better understood, I have placed beside it on the Plate a copy (Fig. 6), from Richard's Memoire sur les Conifères, (pl. 14, fig. H,) of a section of the seed of Pinus Cedrus, Linn.

The affinity between this cone and the recent cedars is so obvious, that it would be wasting words to dwell upon it; but it may be interesting to remark that this group of pines, which is confined, according to Parlatore in his recent Monograph of the Coniferæ,' to two species, the cedar of Lebanon and the Deodar, formed a striking characteristic of the Cretaceous flora. Besides the species just described, two others have been found in our British rocks, P. Benstedi, Endl., and P. oblongus, Endl.,' both from the Lower Greensand. Another species, P. Corneti, Coem., forms part of that remarkable local flora of Cycads and Conifers of Cretaceous age, described by M. Coemans, from La Louvière.

2. PINITES GRACILIS, sp. nov. Plate I. Fig. 9.

Cone elongated, cylindrical, tapering at the extremities into somewhat acute ends; apex of the scale rhomboidal, somewhat thickened. Locality. The Gault of Eastware Bay, near Folkestone.

I am indebted to J. S. Gardner, Esq., F.G.S., for my acquaintance with this cone. He has two specimens in his collection. They are 3 inches long, and of an inch broad. The cone is singularly different from any species, recent or fossil, with which I am acquainted.

PINITES DEPRESSUS, sp. nov.

Plate II., Fig. 10.

Cone small, cylindrical, depressed at the apex; scales short, very broad, thin at the apex.

Locality-Kimmeridge Clay of Weymouth.

The materials for establishing and describing this species are somewhat imperfect; but as this is the only coniferous fruit yet

1 De Candolle's Prodromus. Vol. xvi., Sec. 2, p. 407. Paris, 1868.

2 The original and as yet only known specimen of this species is in the Museum at Oxford.

recorded from the Kimmeridge clay, and as it is a well marked, though probably a young cone, it seemed to be desirable to figure it. It is 10 lines long, and 11 lines broad. It is in the collection of the British Museum.

II. ARAUCARITES, Unger.

Since the publication of my paper on Fossil Araucarian Cones (GEOL MAG., Vol. iii. p. 249), I have had the opportunity of examining the as yet unique specimen of Araucarites Pippingfordensis, Carr., with which I was then acquainted only from Fitton's accurate figure. This examination has confirmed the opinion I then formed that this fossil was nearly allied to A. sphærocarpus, Carr., and that they both belonged to the section represented by the Australian species, which, from their peculiarities, have been separated from the American species by some authors as a distinct genus with the name Eutacta. I may also mention here that unwittingly I introduced an i into the specific name, which should not be there, following the erroneous spelling of Unger's Synopsis.

I have now to add two additional species belonging to this genus, both from Oolitic rocks; founded principally on the detached scales which occur, the one in great abundance at Stonesfield, and the other somewhat more rarely in Yorkshire.

1. ARAUCARITES BRODIEI, sp. nov. Plate II. Figs. 1-6. Scales from the centre of the cone cuneate, gradually tapering towards the narrow base of attachment to the axis, composed of two portions, each terminating at its free apex in a short spinous process, the lower and larger portion very broad and membranous, the upper portion narrower and somewhat parallel-sided, supporting between them a single ovoid seed.

Locality. From the Stonesfield Slate of Stonesfield.

I first noticed this species when examining the large collection of Stonesfield slate fossils in the Oxford Museum, and part of my illustrations are from a specimen which Professor Phillips permitted me to have the loan of from his private collection. The scales are scattered over the surface of the slate, exhibiting, as is the case with the fossils of this bed, only casts of the organism slightly coloured with the remains of the mineral carbon into which they were converted. In some specimens the cast of the three parts of the scale are clearly seen, viz., the upper and under scales and the seed. The scales are from eight to eleven lines long, and from six to twelve lines broad at the widest parts. They present the double apex characteristic of the section Eutacta. In the collection of the Rev. P. B. Brodie I have found the cast of the lower portion of a cone, with an inch and a half of the supporting branch, marked by the scars of the leaves. This fragment exhibits the attachment of eight scales, and clearly establishes the true nature of the detached specimens. This is the more important, as the scales have been described as complete organisms by M. Pomel,' who has detected them in the

1 Amtlicher Bericht über du xxv. Versammlung der Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Äerzte in Aachen, Sept., 1847, pp. 347-352.

Jurassic rocks of St. Mihiel and De Seyssel in France. He thus describes the specimens and interprets their meaning:-"The most remarkable of these organs are the ovate-lanceolate scales, which thin towards their apex, and have an oblong cavity hollowed out of their upper portion for the reception of an oblong somewhat compressed seed. The similarity in the form of their impressions show that they were really more or less foliaceous scales. If the apex is mistaken for the base they might be taken for the detached scales of an Araucaria. But in examining a number of these scales it becomes evident that the enlarged end is the base, because of its concavity, 'et en outre elle est toujour accompagnée d' une autre empreinte en portions de cercle, large mais courte et se terminant évidemment par un court onglet.' The thickness of this impression indicates that the fossil was a strong seale on a large spathulate leaf, upon which was inserted the carpillary scale,-the whole being certainly borne at the termination of a branch. This forms the whole female organ, and exhibits a great analogy to the fruit of Taxineæ,-to that of Dacrydium for example, which is in the same way borne on a terminal thickened and dilated leaf. The discovery of a fragment of a branch terminating in one of these carpillary scales dispels all doubt as to this interpretation of their structure. They were then Taxinea, but without drupaceous fruits, the ovule being enclosed in a true and not fleshy scale. They form a small extinct family near Taxinea, which may be called Lepidocarpea. The male buds are ovoid, or cylindrical-oblong, and are composed of scales more or less broad at the base, recurved at the apex, and loosely or compactly imbricated. Traces of stamens can be detected on the scales, probably coriaceous and thick, but their characteristics cannot be clearly determined."

After examining the various species of Conifers of Oolitic age, based as they are chiefly upon the foliage, he concludes that there is no reason for placing them in separate genera, and he consequently establishes a new genus Moreauia, rejecting all the names hitherto employed, because, with a single exception, they suggest false analogies, and that excepted name (Brachyphyllum) is applicable only to a section of the whole. He describes eight new species from the French Oolites, and places 25 other species in his genus, most of which have been long known under the names Brachyphyllum, Thuites, Cupressites, Araucarites, Lycopodites, Cunninghamites, Taxodites, and Taxites. M. Pomel promises a more complete justification of his views in a monograph of the genus shortly to be published, but which, as far as I have been able to ascertain, has not yet made its appearance.

I have quoted M. Pomel's observations at length, as they are, if they can be established, most important, inasmuch as they introduce to science a new and singular tribe of extinct Taxineous Conifera. Genera established upon foliage are at the best unstable, and affinities determined only on such materials are nearly always unsatisfactory. There need, then, be no insuperable barrier to the union of all these various forms in a single genus, if the organs of

reproduction were found to be similar. That genus would indeed be very variable in its foliage if it included such forms as Brachy phyllum and Cunninghamites, but a wider variation is known in the very natural genus Podocarpus among living Coniferæ. M. Pomel maintains that the organs of reproduction are the same; but that opinion rests only on the observation, as he believes, of a single specimen of the connection of foliage and fruit, in one of his 33 species; and in maintaining this position he is obliged to set aside the observation of M. Brongniart in regard to the fruit of Taxites podocarpoides, Brongn. In the numerous examples from the Stonesfield slate which have passed under my observation I have not met with a single specimen which would support M. Pomel's opinion. If the conditions of the St. Mihiel rocks are similar to what exists at Stonesfield, as appears from M. Pomel's descriptions, every one acquainted with our English rock must know how easy it is to be deceived in attempting to unite fragmentary fossils from mere juxtaposition of impressions which does not in the least testify to former organic connection.

The structure of the scales as exhibited in the better preserved specimens, places it beyond doubt that M. Pomel has mistaken the apex for the base of the organism. The apex of the scale is double, each portion representing one of the two structures of which the Araucarian scale is composed, and which can be easily distinguished in numbers of the specimens. Each of these portions terminates in a short free spinous process. It would be quite anomalous to have such a double attachment for a single fruit. Taking, however, the interpretation I propose, everything is intelligible, the form of the scale, the position of the seed, the broad membranous wings to the scale, and the double apex, all agree with what occurs in the Australian species of Araucaria, and with what I have shown to be the structure of Araucarites sphærocarpus (GEOL. MAG., Vol. III., p. 252), And that this is the true interpretation of the scales is established by the cast of a fragment of a cone from the Rev. P. B. Brodie's collection figured on Plate II., Fig. 1.

There is a considerable variety in the size and form of the scales scattered over the surface of the slate, but they all agree in bearing a single seed, and in having a more or less extended membranous margin to the scale. The difference in form may indicate the existence of more than one species, but I am rather inclined, from the materials I have examined, to consider it due to the position on the cone which the different scales occupied. Figures 3 and 4 represent the most abundant found; specimens occur considerably larger than those figured; Figure 2 is a form of which I have several examples. Except that the scales of Araucaria excelsa, the species found on Norfolk Island, are considerably larger than those of the fossil, they agree remarkably in every other respect with them.

In explanation of the occurrence of so many separate scales, and the rarity of cones, it deserves to be remarked that, unlike the cones of our northern Abietineæ, the scales very readily separate from the axis in Araucaria, so that it is difficult to preserve them whole in collections.

Impressions of two fragments of branches have been seen by me in the Stonesfield slate, which most probably belonged to this species (both in the collection of the British Museum), of one of which a portion is figured on Plate II., Fig. 5.

I have also observed a leaf agreeing in the size of its base with the scars on the branches, and in form with the leaves of some living species of Araucaria. It is represented at Figure 6 of the same Plate.

2. ARAUCARITES PHILLIPSII, sp. nov. Plate II. Figs. 7-9. Scales from the centre of the cone cuneate, nearly as broad as long, lower scale thickish throughout, without membranous wings.

Winged seed," Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire, ed. I. (1829), p. 190, plate x, fig. 5.

Locality.-Inferior Oolite or Lower Calcareous Sandstone shales (Phillips) of Yorkshire.

Professor Phillips observed these scales in the beds at Haiburn Wyke. He was evidently unable to determine to his own satisfaction what they were, and so modified his first suggestion that they were probably the seeds of Cycadites, at page 150, to the more general designation, "Winged seed," at page 190.

When I detected the species just described in the Oxford Museum, Prof. Phillips drew my attention to the similar organisms from Yorkshire. They are smaller in size than the species just described, being from six to eight lines long by about six lines broad. The structure of the scale, with its single median seed, although not so clearly exhibited as in the casts of specimens in the Stonesfield slate, is sufficient to show, without any doubt, that it is an Araucarian scale. Additional evidence confirming this opinion is obtained from a fragment of a cone in the collection of Prof. Williamson, of Manchester, and which he has been good enough to let me have for the purpose of figuring it. This specimen (Fig. 7) is a portion of a rubbed cone, imperfect at both extremities, with the scales abraded to near the axis, showing the cavities which held the seeds, and these are filled on one side of the cone with carbonate of lime, which takes the form of the seed it has replaced. Each scale bears a single seed, as in Araucaria, and the size of the scale and the seed corresponds with that seen in the detached scales. As this fragment is from the same deposit as the scales, it may fairly be concluded that it is the cone of Araucarites Phillipsii. It shows it to have been smaller, more cylindrical, and to have been composed of smaller, shorter, and more broadly cuneate scales than 4. sphærocarpus, Carr., found in beds of the same age at Bruton, Somersetshire.

Professor Phillips figures the apex of the scale terminating in a single short apiculus. I have not been able to detect this, but the mineral condition of the specimens, and the shale in which they are preserved, make it difficult to determine clearly minute points in their structure. It is probable from the apparent absence of the double apiculus to the scales, and the want of the membranous wings, that this species may belong to the section of the genus named Colymbeia by Salisbury, and confined among living plants to the species inhabiting South America.