Fossil Foliage and Fruit of Conifers.—From this digression on the pine-forests and drift-wood of the secondary formations, we return to the examination of the foliage and fruits of this order of vegetables that are preserved in the mineral kingdom.
Araucaria peregrina (Lindley and Hutton). [Lign. 59, fig. 1.]—With the trunks and branches of conifers of the Lias, cones and foliage are occasionally found: a beautiful example of a branch with the leaves preserved, is figured, [Lign. 59]. This fossil has been so admirably cleared from the shale which invested it (by Miss Philpot) that even the surface of the leaves is exposed. It so closely resembles a twig of Altingia excelsa, that the eminent authors of Foss. Flor. have named it as above. But M. Brongniart states that the foliage differs from that of the two living groups of Araucariæ: in Araucaria Brasiliensis, the leaves are flat, in Altingia excelsa, quadrangular; in the fossil the leaves are short, fleshy, arranged spirally, and inserted.
Lign. 59.
| Fig. | 1.— | Part of a Branch of Araucaria peregrina; nat.Lias, Lyme Regis. |
| 2.— | Calamites nodosus with foliage; nat. Coal-shale, (see ante, [p. 109].). |
Pinites; a name applied to those fossil leaves and fruits which agree in their general character with the recent genus Pinus; upwards of thirty species are known.[149] In the Pines, as botanically distinguished from the Firs (Abies), the leaves arise in bundles of from two to five; and the scales of the cones are thickened, and terminate in discs more or less defined. In Firs, (Larch, Cedar, &c.) the scales have thin edges, and the leaves are solitary.
[149] See Endlechen's Synopsis Coniferarum.
Pinites Fittoni. Geol. Isle of Wight; 2d edit, p. 457.—Several cones with the above characters have been found in the Wealden formation. A cone figured and described by Dr Fitton, is remarkable for a double prominence on each scale: It was supposed to resemble the fruit of Dammara, but the strobilus of the latter is like that of the Cedar of Lebanon, in which the edges of the scales are thin. The Wealden fossil appears to be a genuine pine, and may be distinguished by the name of its discoverer, Pinites Fittoni; a small figure of the only known specimen is given, Wond. p. 399, fig. 4.
I have collected from the Wealden strata of the Isle of Wight three or four small cones, which resemble those of a species of Araucaria; they are ovate, imbricated, with acuminated scales, which are recurved at the apex. The fossils figured in Wond. p. 399, figs. 2 and 3, are, I believe, water-worn specimens of the same species.[150]