PROCEEDINGS 



OF TBI 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



FORTY-FIRST SESSION, 184243. 



CONTENTS. 



Mr. Qourlie on the Fossil Plants in the Glasgow Geological Museum, . 109 

 Mr. Murray's Section of the Lanarkshire Coal Field, . . . .113 

 Mr. Watt on the Vital Statistics of five large Towns of Scotland, . .114 



Dr. R. D. Thomson on the Cowdie Pine Resin, 123 



Dr. Buchanan on the Fibrin contained in the animal fluids, . * .131 



15th February y 1843, — The President in the Chair. 



XXXI. — Notice of the Fossil Plants in the Glasgow Geological Museum. 

 By William Gourlie, Jun., Esq. (^Continued.) 



Coniferce, — It is only lately that the remains of Araucarias, or trees 

 similar to the Norfolk Island pines, have been identified in the coal 

 strata, having previously been supposed to exist only in the secondary 

 and tertiary series. From the examination of their polished sections, 

 for the preparation of which Mr. Sanderson of Edinburgh is so cele- 

 brated, it is clearly ascertained that the Craigleith and Wardie fossil 

 trees have been large Araucarias^ as the peculiar structure of the 

 pines of Norfolk Island, New Holland, or Brazil, is distinctly visible. 

 The Araucaria excelsa bears the winters of the south of England 

 and Ireland. 



JStigmaria. — The last plant described in the paper, namely, the Stig- 

 marta, was noticed as being the most extraordinary of all, and, in its 

 form, mode of growth, and internal structure, quite sui generis. The 

 Stigmaria ficoides is extremely abundant in the sandstones and shales, 

 its almost semi-circular, grooved, and pitted arms extending them- 

 selves in all directions through the strata in which they are found. 

 From a large central dome, probably growing in shallow water, a 

 number of arms have radiated with great regularity, branching dicho- 

 tomously, and extending to a distance of twenty or thirty feet, floating 

 under the surface, and covered with long leaves, which appear to have 

 been fistulose. In a specimen belonging to Dr. Smith of Crutherland, 



No. 7. 1 



