254
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
a curious and characteristic double structure. Each consists
of a usually slender bract, in whose axil lies a scale bearing two
or more seeds. In the flowering stage the bract is as large as or
larger than the scale, but on maturity the scales usually far
exceed the slender bracts, and form the conspicuous and more
or less woody part of the cone. In old pine-cones the little
bracts are never noticed unless they are hunted for at the base
of the scales ; in the big erect cones of Abies nobilis, the long
bracts extend far beyond the broad scales over which their
reflexed ends form a sort of thatch. In Cryptomeria cones the
stiff pointed bracts are united for half their length with the
scales ; the latter each bear three seeds, and instead of ending
above in a smooth edge, as do the scales of firs, cedars and the
pines, are divided into from two to six stout teeth.
Now from certain Triassic and Permian rocks a fossil plant
named Voltzia has long been known, and classed among the
conifers. It occurs in many regions, in North and Central
America, in Africa and in India, in various parts of Europe and in
England. The stiff ascending foliage resembles that of Crypto-
meria, a type of foliage which is, however, shared by several
other conifers not closely allied. The cones also somewhat
resemble those of Cryptomeria in that the scales are divided
above into five teeth or lobes, and bear three pendulous seeds.
Until recently there has been no evidence to show if the cone-
scales possessed the peculiar double character referred to above,
i.e., whether each seed-bearing scale was subtended by a bract,
or whether it was a simple structure, for only the inner or
ventral side of the scales had been seen. That question has
now been answered. Mr. John Walton, in a paper entitled
"On the Structure of a Palaeozoic Cone-scale and the Evidence
it furnishes of the primitive nature of the Double Cone-scale in
the Conifers,"3 describes a cone-scale of Voltzia Liebiana found
in beds of Permian age, and obtained from a boring 1,000 feet
deep in Northamptonshire. Mr. Walton's illustration of the
solitary cone-scale, as he first saw it, represents the inner
side of the five-lobed scale, and shows two seeds and a scar
between them from which a third seed had fallen. By the
"transfer" process Mr. Walton was, however, able to detach
the scale from the rock and examine the outer or dorsal side ;
3 In Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 73 ; 1928-29.