Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 25.djvu/469

Rh it therefore very possible that fossil may have belonged to the same genus.

A small cone is perhaps the fruit of the fossil I have figured as Sequoia Du Noyeri. Fragments of other fossils such as that drawn on Pl. XV. fig. 5,a & b, I have referred to Cupressites, naming the species C. MacHenrii: the imbricated character due to the peculiar arrangement of the leaves on the terminal branches is very evident in some specimens, resembling very closely that of the ordinary Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens.

A large proportion of these fossils consists of leaves of Dicotyledonous plants, the principal varieties being shown on Pl. XIV. Most abundant amongst them are ovate and acuminate leaves, with entire or non-serrate margins, and a simple character of venation (Pl. XIV. figs. 7, 8); they resemble so nearly some of the species of Rhamnus figured by Prof. A. Massalongo in 'Flora Fossile Senigalliese, and by Dr. Oswald Heer in 'Flora Fossils Arctica,' as to induce the belief in the probability of their generic identity, and of their having belonged to trees or shrubs of the Rhamnaceæ or Buckthorn Order. Some linear-lanceolate leaves, having entire margins and a strong midrib, on which, however, no other trace of venation is perceptible (Pl. XIV. figs. 3, 4), are so much like those figured by Massalongo under the names of Olea and Andromeda, as to have probably belongedto the Order Oleaceæ.

A large ovate leaf (Pl. XIV. fig. 2) having an obsoletely serrated margin is comparable with species of Fagus figured by both Massalongo and Heer, approaching very closely to Fagus incerta, Massal. Other leaves (Pl. XIV. figs. 5, 6), tapering at each extremity and having closely arranged ribs and a non-serrated margin, resemble some forms of Quercus, such as Q. nereifolia, in 'Flora Foss. Senigalliese, pl. 31. f. 6, and the evergreen oak, Q. ilex.

Parallel-ribbed stems or leaves of Endogenous plants, such as may have belonged to Sedges or Grasses, are not unfrequent in the collection.

A large mass of fossil wood partially oxidized was procured from the bed with iron-ore; it exhibits the structure very clearly, and is evidently dicotyledonous.

Several fruit- or seed-vessels of different kinds, some of which are shown on Pl. XIV. figs. 9–13, occur in the same bed, as well as a few remains of insects, two very small elytra or wing-cases of beetles of