144? Footsteps in the Sandsto7ie 



cotyledons are said to be accumbent, as in all Pleurorhizeae 

 (pleuron, the side, r/iiza, a root) ; when the side of the cotyle- 

 dons is pressed to the radicula, thus oil, the former are called 

 incumbent, as in Notorhizeae {7iotos, the back, rhiza, a root). 

 If the cotyledons are incumbent, and at the same time half 

 folded together or conduplicate, thus o > > , the suborder 

 Orthoploceae {orthos, upright, ploke, a fold) is formed ; when 

 the cotyledons are incumbent and spirally twisted, so that a 

 section would resemble this o |] |I , they constitute the sub- 

 order Spirolobeae {speira, a spire, lobos, a pod) ; and finally, 

 when the cotyledons are incumbent, and doubled twice in their 

 length, thus o jl || ||j we have Diplolobse {diploos, double, 

 lobos, a pod). 



{To be continued.) 



Art. IX. A short Notice of the Occurrence of Footsteps in the 

 Sandstone of Corn Cockle Mtiiry in Dumfriesshire, By K.N. 



In a quarry, situated in the New Red Sandstone district Ox 

 Dumfriesshire, about three miles north of Lochmaben, the 

 workmen, in the course of excavating stones, have for some 

 time discovered marks which correspond exactly in appear- 

 ance with the footsteps of some four-footed animal. The rock 

 has been long quarried for building materials, as well as for 

 paving stones, (for each it is well adapted, owing to its lami- 

 nated structure,) and the existence of the foot-marks has been 

 known for fifteen or sixteen years, though little notice was 

 taken of them, until they attracted the attention of Dr. Dun- 

 can, minister of Ruth well, who has been most assiduous in 

 investigating the fact, and in making it public. The strata 

 dip to the south-east, under an angle of about 37 or 38 degrees. 



It is particularly worthy of notice, that the marks are not 

 confined to one part of the bed ; on the contrary, they are 

 found on almost each succeeding layer, and are met with at 

 the spot where the quarry-men are now working, which is 

 more than 40 ft. below ground The laminated structure of 

 the bed, which is easily divisible into layers of various thick- 

 nesses, from the breadth of an inch to that of several feet, 

 demonstrates that the sandstone was not all deposited at one 

 time; as, in that case, it would most probably have formed 

 one solid compact mass. It is on the upper surface of these 

 layers that the footsteps exist; and each succeeding lamina, 

 on its deposition, appears to have filled up the indentation 

 beneath, like plaster of Paris poured into a mould. On 



