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Eleven of these trees were silicified and well preserved; Mr. R. Brown has been so kind as to examine the wood when sliced and polished; he says it is coniferous, partaking of the characters of the Araucarian tribe, with some curious points of affinity with the Yew.
Robert Brown has been kind enough to examine the wood: he says it belongs to the fir tribe, partaking of the character of the Araucarian family, but with some curious points of affinity with the yew.
Only a few species have been found in the coal-beds, and these, on examination under the microscope, have been discovered to be closely related to the araucarian division of pines, rather than to any of our common firs. The living species of this tree is a native of Norfolk Island, in the Pacific, and here it attains a height of 200 feet, with a girth of 30 feet.
As we turn over the pages of the geological chronicle, an extraordinary change comes over the vegetation of the earth. New, stunted, hardy trees make their appearance: the Walchia, a tree something like the low Araucarian conifers in the texture of its wood, and the Voltzia, the reputed ancestor of the cypresses.
Fragment of coniferous wood, Dadoxylon, of Endlicher. Woody fibre. c. Pith. e, e, e. The coniferous trees of this period are referred to five genera; the woody structure of some of them showing that they were allied to the Araucarian division of pines, more than to any of our common European firs. Some of their trunks exceeded forty-four feet in height.
The age of the Mesozoic peneplain is determined from the fact that the lower Tertiary sediments were deposited on its even surface when at the close of the era the peneplain was depressed along its edges beneath the sea. The uplands were clothed with conifers, like the Araucarian pines of South America and Australia.
Two or three of these, as Calamites gigas, Sphenopteris erosa, and S. lobata, are also met with in the government of Perm in Russia. Cardiocarpon Ottonis. Neoggerathia cuneifolia. Brongniart. Coniferae, of the Araucarian division, also occur; but these are likewise met with both in older and newer rocks.
Quekett, having kindly examined some specimens, finds that it is "silicified CONIFEROUS WOOD of the ARAUCARIAN type; and the nearest allied wood that he knows of is that found, also in a fossil state, in New South Wales." The numbers of large game were quite astonishing. I never saw elephants so tame as those near the Chiponga: they stood close to our path without being the least afraid.
Robert Brown has been kind enough to examine the wood: he says it belongs to the fir tribe, partaking of the character of the Araucarian family, but with some curious points of affinity with the yew.
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