Abietites.—To the Abies, or Fir, several cones found in the Wealden deposits of Sussex and Hants closely approximate in the form and structure of their scales. The most remarkable is the very elongated coniferous fruit, first discovered by me in the Wealden at Brook Point, and described and figured in my Geology of the Isle of Wight (2d edit. p. 452), under the name of Abietites Dunkeri, in honour of the eminent geologist who has so successfully and diligently explored the Wealden of the North of Germany.
I have been so fortunate as to collect from thirty to forty specimens of these fruits of the conifers of the country of the Iguanodon, associated with trunks and branches, and imperfect vestiges of single lanceolate leaves.
Lign. 61.
Abietites Dunkeri.
Wealden; Isle of Wight;
1/3 nat.
Fir-cone, showing the imbricated scales, and many bracteæ.
ABIETITES DUNKERI.
Abietites Dunkeri. [Lign. 61.]—These cones are of a cylindrical form, and greatly elongated: the largest specimen is thirteen inches in length, and but three inches in circumference. The scales are broad, slightly convex without and concave within, obovate or subrotund, with a prominent midrib, edges thin and entire. Leaves solitary, slender, slightly curved, from 1 inch to 11/2 inch in length. The cones were garnished with bracteæ, which are seen on the margins of the fossil when imbedded in the rock. Whether the foliage that forms the constituent substance of a large proportion of the bituminous coal of Hanover (ante, [p. 74].), and which has been figured and of the named by Dr. Dunker Abietites Linkii, belongs to the same species of Fir as these cones, I am unable to determine. The seeds are of an ovate form: the pericarp is in the state of carbon, and filled or lined with pyrites or calc-spar.
These cones are generally found more or less pyritified, and are extremely beautiful objects when first collected; but like the fruits from the Isle of Sheppey, similarly mineralized, often decompose, in spite of every precaution, after exposure to the air but for a few weeks.
A small sub-ovate fir-cone found with coniferous wood in the Kentish-rag of Mr. Bensted's quarry, near Maidstone, (ante, [p. 173].), and figured and described by me as Abies Benstedi, probably belongs to the coniferæ of the Wealden, since it was associated with drifted bones of the Iguanodon.
Fossil Cypresses.—The tribe of conifers called Cupressus or Cypress, (distinguished from the firs and pines by the leaves being mere scales, and the cones consisting of small wooded peltate bracteæ, and by other botanical characters,) including the Juniper and Arbor-vitæ, appears to have flourished during the whole of the secondary epochs; for fossil leaves and stems referable to this family, but whose generic affinities cannot be determined with precision, have been found in the Trias, Lias, Oolite, and Wealden deposits.