312 Dv Murray on a Deposite of Fossil Plants ^ 



The plants are principally ferns, and are decidedly different 

 from those of our other coal-fields ; and most nearly resembling 

 the specimens from Bornholm in the Baltic, but congeneric with 

 many now existing in tropical regions. 



Additional species are detected almost daily ; and those al- 

 ready distinguished must exceed fifty. This prodigious varie- 

 ty of fossil Alices, compared with those now vegetating in our 

 climate, must strike the most casual observer. Here, in one 

 narrow spot, not exceeding two or three acres in extent, we 

 have already found fifty species ; and, in a similar, but some- 

 what lower formation, within ten miles distance, at Cloughton, 

 several other kinds, totally distinct, offering a number exceed- 

 ing that of those now living in the whole island of Great Bri- 

 tain. So that these northern regions must, in those early ages, 

 have presented as numerous and diversified a display of ferns, 

 many most specious and luxuriant, as the wilds of Southern 

 Africa now do of the heaths ; although we must not presume to 

 compare the dark unvarying hue of fern clad wastes, with the 

 splendour and endless tints of the heathy plains of the Cape. 



The interesting deposite at Gristhorpe Bay may be considered 

 as a vast herbarium, of which the leaves opening to the readiest 

 observation, offer every facility and pleasure in the examination; 

 and not, as is the case with the generality of coal plants, sur- 

 rounded with dirt, and darkness, and perils, imbedded in the 

 roofs and sides of mines ; and they resemble so many fine draw- 

 ings in Indian ink, or the shadows of delicate foliage by moon- 

 light cast upon a smooth and white ground or wall. 



The vegetable nature of these curious impressions is remark- 

 ably shewn by the scarcely fossilized state of one of the varie- 

 ties, apparently a fern allied to the genus Isoiites, which, when 

 detached from the imbedding stony mass, still retains elasticity 

 and flexibility, and burns like a piece of charred wood. Others 

 yet preserve, even in their clay bed, much of their original co- 

 lour, a dull red resembling that of some fuci ; and portions of 

 such leaflets maybe peeled away, — are perfectly flexible and com- 

 bustible, — and are actually semi-transparent and striated, and 

 afford most pleasing and curious objects for a microscope. They 

 are, however, so completely carbonized, as not to yield either 

 tannin or resinous matter, in the experiments which I have in- 

 stituted. 



