FOSSIL ALCYONIA. 35 



whether we consider the peculiar forms with which they. are 

 endowed, the original modes of their exifteuce, or the ex- 

 traordinary changes which they have undergone, a variety 

 of subjects of inquiry, of the most curious nature, will ne- 

 cessarily arise. 



That many terrestrial fruits and seed-vessels^ containing Many hate 

 the ligneous matter* have been found in a petrified state, been deceived 

 has been already shewn : of these, of course, it is not in- n ^ ^he^e- 

 tended here to speak. But substances have been repeatedly semblance. 

 met with, the general appearances of which have so much 

 accorded with those of some terrestrial fruits, as to have 

 led several learned and ingenious men to place them among 

 these substances. Thus Volkmann was deceived, and fi- 

 gured and described one of these bodies as nux rtioschata 

 fructu rotundo, Casp* Bauhin *. Scheuchzer, on the au- 

 thority of Volkmann, adopted the same figure and descrip* 

 tion. Nor will this errour be considered as without excuse, 

 when the great resemblance of many of these substances to 

 terrestrial fruits is shewn. Indeed, T much suspect that, 

 after all the circumstances have been examined, some per- 

 sons will be found who will not be readily disposed >to con- 

 sider subftances, bearing such appearances, as subjects of 

 the animal kingdom* The propriety however of doing this 

 will perhaps appear, when other bodies will be shewn pas- 

 sing, through almoft insensible gradations, from these bo-* 

 dies, which so closely approximate, in their general ap- 

 pearances, to the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, up to 

 others, whose characters are sufficiently marked, to leave 

 no doubt whatever in the mind as to their animal origin. 



No one I believe has been more industrious, or more Guettard very 

 successful in their inquiries, respecting these bodies than u^Sffi! j? 

 M. Guettard, as appears by his very ingenious Essay, Sur into them, 

 quelque$ Corps Fossiles pen connus, in the Memoirs of the 

 Academy of Sciences at Paris for the year 1757. M. Guet- 

 tard observes, that at Verest, near Tours and Saumur, and 

 at Mentrichard, in Touraine, there are found, at some 

 depth in the earth, numerous bodies, which from their 

 very close resemblance, in figure, to figs, pears, oranges, 



• Silesisc Subterranean. Tab. XXII. Fig. 6. 



D 2 and 



