These cones are generally found more or less pyritified, and are extremely beautiful objects when first collected; but like the fruits from the Isle of Sheppey, similarly mineralized, often decompose, in spite of every precaution, after exposure to the air but for a few weeks. A small sub-ovate fir-cone found with coniferous wood in the Kentish-rag of Mr. Bensted's quarry, near Maidstone, (_ante_, p. 173), and figured and described by me as _Abies Benstedi_, probably belongs to the coniferæ of the Wealden, since it was associated with drifted bones of the Iguanodon. Fossil Cypresses.--The tribe of conifers called _Cupressus_ or Cypress, (distinguished from the firs and pines by the leaves being mere scales, and the cones consisting of small wooded peltate bracteæ, and by other botanical characters,) including the Juniper and Arbor-vitæ, appears to have flourished during the whole of the secondary epochs; for fossil leaves and stems referable to this family, but whose generic affinities cannot be determined with precision, have been found in the Trias, Lias, Oolite, and Wealden deposits. [Illustration: Lign. 62. Thuites Kurrianus _nat._ _Wealden. Hastings._] Thuites Kurrianus. _Lign. 62._--The _Thuja_ or Arbor-vitæ, a plant too well known to require description, is the type of the fossil plants distinguished by the name of _Thuites_. Many years since I discovered vestiges of branches and leaves of some species of this genus, in the ironstone of the Wealden beds, at Heathfield in Sussex (_Geol. S. E._ p. 228); and of late, many specimens have been found in strata of the same formation in England and Germany. The branch here figured, from the cabinet of S. H. Beckles, Esq. will serve to illustrate the appearance of these fossil plants. Some small fruits found in the ironstone of Heathfield may possibly belong to Cypresses. The foliage and fruit of five or six distinct species of Thuites have been discovered in Tertiary strata. Voltzia.[153] (_Wond._ p. 547).--This extinct genus of plants is peculiar to the Trias (_Grès bigarré_) or New Red deposits, and is one of the most characteristic of the fossil coniferæ. The specimens first found were from _Sultz-les-Bains_, near Strasburgh. The leaves are alternate, arranged spirally, sessile, and decurrent, and have much analogy with those of certain Araucariæ. The fruits are oblong cones, with cuneiform scales, slightly imbricated, not contiguous, and generally with from three to five lobes. [153] Named in honour of the late M. Voltz, of Strasburgh, by whom they were first discovered. The specimens in the British Museum, from my collection, were presented to me by M. Voltz. [Sidenote: TAXITES. NŒGGERATHIA. FOSSIL RESINS.] Taxites.--Some branches found in the Stonesfield slate, and bearing a general resemblance to twigs of Yew (_Taxus_), are described under the above name, but their analogies are doubtful. (See _ante_, p. 145.)