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XXIX. Some Account of an undescribed Fossil Fruit. By Robert Brown, 



Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., r.P.L.S. 



Read June 15th, 1847. 



1 HE following imperfect account of a singularly beautiful and instructive 

 silicified Fossil has been hastily drawn up, to supply in some measure the pos- 

 sible want of any other memoir for the present Meeting. 



The remarks which I am enabled to make, from detached memoranda, on 

 so short a notice, will principally serve to explain the accompanying draw- 

 ings, which I have carefully superintended, and which exhibit a very satis- 

 factory microscopic analysis of its structure, and do great credit to the 

 artistical talent of Mr. George Sowerby, jun. 



The only specimen of this Fossil known to exist, was brought to London in 

 1843 by M. Roussell, an intelligent dealer in objects of natural history. His 

 account of it was, that it had been in the possession of Baron Roget, an 

 amateur collector in Paris, for about thirty years ; that after his death it was 

 brought to public sale with the rest of his collection, but no offer being made 

 nearly equal to the sum he paid for it, which was 600 francs, it was bought in. 

 It was purchased here from M. Roussell jointly by the British Museum, the 

 Marquis of Northampton and myself, for nearly 30/. It seems to have entirely 

 escaped the notice of the naturalists of Paris. Nothing else is known of its 

 history, but from its obvious analogy in structure and in its mineral con- 

 dition with Lepidostrobus, it may be conjectured to belong to the same geolo- 

 gical formation. 



The specimen is evidently the upper half of a Strobilus very gradually 

 tapering towards the top. As brought to England it was not quite two 

 inches in length ; but a transverse slice, probably of no great thickness, had 

 been removed from it in Paris : the transverse diameter of the lower slices 

 somewhat exceeded the length of the specimen ; its surface, which was evi- 



