154 Mr Nicol o?i the Structure of 



Coniferae which I found in the lias deposit of Whitby, sections 

 of which are also figured in Witham'^s Treatise, but having 

 already, I fear, exceeded tlie limits of a communication of iliis 

 kind, I shall leave that district, and add little more than tlie 

 description, of a fossil Conifera, which I found among the debris 

 of the prismatic columns of porphyritic pitchstone constituting 

 the Scuir of the island of Eigg. Sections of this specimen are 

 also figured in the book, but the writer states erroneously, that 

 the specimen was found, not among the debris of the pitchstone, 

 but that of the has rocks in the vicinity of the Scuir. 



The Eigg fossil in the transverse section presents annual layers 

 well defined, and displays the coniferous reticulated texture in 

 great perfection throughout the greatest part of the surface. In 

 some few parts towards the outer edge, the texture is very much 

 distorted, and in one part nearly obliterated. The obliterated 

 part is replaced by small translucent circular portions of sparry 

 matter, which in some parts are distinct, but in other parts com- 

 pletely confluent. Portions of this small circle of spar casually 

 occur in the perfectly reticulated part, which some have con- 

 sidered as lacunae ; but those towards the outer side not only be- 

 come larger, but gradually approximate each other, and at last 

 entirely obliterate the meshes. That the whole are not lacunae, 

 may also he inferred from this circumstance, namely, that in the 

 centres of some of the circles, portions of the reticulated texture 

 may be distinctly seen. 



Some dislocations have taken place in this specimen, without 

 the parts having been separated from each other. Of these, 

 some are in the direction of the radii, others in a concentric di- 

 rection. The former are discernible merely in consequence of 

 the edges of the layers on one side of the slip being opposite the 

 middle of the layers on the other side, and the latter in conse- 

 quence of the medullary rays in one layer not passing through 

 the slip into the adjoining layer. 



In the longitudinal section parallel to a radius, this fossil 

 shows no indication of discs of any kind. The partitions of the 

 vessels are very much crowded together, greatly distorted, and 

 the vessels furnish nothing of a characteristic kind. 



The authors of the " Fossil Flora *," have called the Eigg 

 • I.indky and Hutton's periodical work on Fossil Plants. 



