The Geological History of PlantsDawson, John William, Sir
Science
The Geological History of Plants
Dawson, John William, Sir
Paleobotany
There are, however, in the early Tertiary six species, which fill up
the gap between _S. sempervirens_ and _S. gigantea_. They are the _S.
Couttsiæ_, _S. affinis_, Lesq., _S. imbricata_, Hr., _S. sibirica_, Hr.,
_S. Heerii_, Lesq., and _S. biformis_, Lesq. Of these, _S. Couttsiæ_,
Hr., is the most common and most important species. It has short leaves,
lying along the branch, like _S. gigantea_, and small, round cones, like
_S. Langsdorfii_ and _sempervirens_. Bovey Tracey in Devonshire has
afforded splendid specimens of cones, seeds, and twigs, which have been
described in the "Philosophical Transactions." More lately, Count Saporta
has described specimens of cones and twigs from Armissan. Specimens of
this species have also been found in the older Tertiary of Greenland, so
that it must have had a wide range. It is very like to the American _S.
affinis_, Lesq.
In the Tertiary there have been already found fourteen well-marked
species, which thus include representatives of the two living types, _S.
sempervirens_ and _S. gigantea_.
We can follow this genus still further back. If we go back to the
Cretaceous age, we find ten species, of which five occur in the Urgon
of the Lower Cretaceous, two in the Middle, and three in the Upper
Cretaceous. Among these, the Lower Cretaceous exhibits the two types
of the Sequoia sempervirens and _S. gigantea_. To the former the _S.
Smithiana_ answers, and to the latter, the _Reichenbachii_, Gein. The
_S. Smithiana_ stands indeed uncommonly near the _S. Langsdorfii_, both
in the appearance of the leaves on the twigs and in the shape of the
cones. These are, however, smaller, and the leaves do not become narrower
toward the base. The _S. pectina_, Hr., of the Upper Cretaceous, has its
leaves arranged in two rows, and presents a similar appearance. The _S.
Reichenbachii_ is a type more distinct from those now living and those
in the Tertiary. It has indeed stiff, pointed leaves, lying forward, but
they are arcuate, and the cones are smaller. This tree has been known
for a long time, and it serves in the Cretaceous as a guiding star,
which we can follow from the Urgonian of the Lower Cretaceous up to the
Cenomanian. It is known in France, Belgium, Bohemia, Saxony, Greenland,
and Spitzbergen (also in Canada and the United States). It has been
placed in another genus--Geinitzia--but we can recognise, by the help of
the cones, that it belongs to Sequoia.
Below this, there is found in Greenland a nearly related species, the _S.
ambigua_, Hr., of which the leaves are shorter and broader, and the cones
round and somewhat smaller.
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