Lign. 62.
Thuites Kurrianus nat.
Wealden. Hastings.
Thuites Kurrianus. [Lign. 62.]—The Thuja or Arbor-vitæ, a plant too well known to require description, is the type of the fossil plants distinguished by the name of Thuites. Many years since I discovered vestiges of branches and leaves of some species of this genus, in the ironstone of the Wealden beds, at Heathfield in Sussex (Geol. S. E. p. 228); and of late, many specimens have been found in strata of the same formation in England and Germany. The branch here figured, from the cabinet of S. H. Beckles, Esq. will serve to illustrate the appearance of these fossil plants. Some small fruits found in the ironstone of Heathfield may possibly belong to Cypresses. The foliage and fruit of five or six distinct species of Thuites have been discovered in Tertiary strata.
Voltzia.[153] (Wond. p. 547).—This extinct genus of plants is peculiar to the Trias (Grès bigarré) or New Red deposits, and is one of the most characteristic of the fossil coniferæ. The specimens first found were from Sultz-les-Bains, near Strasburgh. The leaves are alternate, arranged spirally, sessile, and decurrent, and have much analogy with those of certain Araucariæ. The fruits are oblong cones, with cuneiform scales, slightly imbricated, not contiguous, and generally with from three to five lobes.
[153] Named in honour of the late M. Voltz, of Strasburgh, by whom they were first discovered. The specimens in the British Museum, from my collection, were presented to me by M. Voltz.
TAXITES. NŒGGERATHIA. FOSSIL RESINS.
Taxites.—Some branches found in the Stonesfield slate, and bearing a general resemblance to twigs of Yew (Taxus), are described under the above name, but their analogies are doubtful. (See ante, [p. 145].)
Nœggerathia.[154]—I must briefly notice the coal-plants which M. Brongniart has placed under this genus, because the foliage of some species appears to have entered largely into the formation of certain seams of coal, although the perfect form of the leaves is unknown. The foliage referred to Nœggerathia consist of pinnated, or deeply pinnatifid, simple leaves. These leaves, or leaflets, are either elongated, linear, lanceolate, wedge-shaped or flabelliform, and entire, or deeply lobed at their extremity, and are traversed by numerous, fine, equal nerves, slightly diverging from the base, but almost parallel. The affinities of these plants are not satisfactorily made out: M. Brongniart considers them to approach nearest to the Cycads or Conifers; perhaps forming a connecting tribe between those two great groups of gymnosperms.[155]
[154] A leaf of N. flabellata is figured in Foss. Flor.