. The testimony of the rocks; . CONIFERS ? England of the same age. My collection contains fossilsprigs, with the slim needle-like leaves attached, of what 476 ON THE LESS KNOWN seem to be from six to seven different species; and it isworthy of notice, that they resemble in the group ratherthe coniferae of the southern than those of the northernhemisphere. One sprig in my collection seems scarcelydistinguishable from that of the recent Altinga excelsa;another, from that of the recent Altinga Cunningliami,Lii^dley and Hutton figure in theii* fossil flora a mmutebranch of Dacrydium cupressinum^
. The testimony of the rocks; . CONIFERS ? England of the same age. My collection contains fossilsprigs, with the slim needle-like leaves attached, of what 476 ON THE LESS KNOWN seem to be from six to seven different species; and it isworthy of notice, that they resemble in the group ratherthe coniferae of the southern than those of the northernhemisphere. One sprig in my collection seems scarcelydistinguishable from that of the recent Altinga excelsa;another, from that of the recent Altinga Cunningliami,Lii^dley and Hutton figure in theii* fossil flora a mmutebranch of Dacrydium cupressinum^ in order to show hownearly the twigs of a large tree, from fifty to a hundredfeet high, may resemble some of the fossils referable toLycopodiaceae. More than one of the Oolitic twigs in my Fig. CONIFER TWIGS. collection are of a resembling character, and may havebelonged either to cone-bearing trees or to club , however, the real character of at least one ofthe specimens,— a minute branch from the Lias of Eathie,with the leaflets attached,—there can be no mistake. Thethicker part of the stem is in such a state of keeping, thatit presents to the microscope, in a sliced preparation, theinternal structure, and exhibits, as in recent coniferous FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. 477 twigs of a years growth, a central pith, a single ring ofreticulated tissue arranged in lines that radiate outwards,and a thin layer of enveloping bark. Nothing, then, canbe more certain than that this ancient twig, which must beaccepted as representative of the foliage of whole forests ofthe Secondary ages in Scotland, formed part of a conifer ofthe Lias; and the foliage of several of the other twigs, itscontemporaries, though I have failed to demonstrate theirtrue character in the same
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