of the Fossil Plants of the genus Sigillaria. 67 



' both are truncated. This specimen is by far the finest that has ever 

 been procured in this district ; and it appears, from its superficial cha- 

 racters, to be specifically distinct from Sivjmaria ficoides. These cha- 

 racters will be reverted to in another part of this paper. 



All the specimens of Stigmaria which have been described as occur- 

 ring in the pits of this district are in the roof, and consequently only their 

 under side is exhibited. There is a very large decorticated specimen, 

 however, in the Ouse Burn, about two miles from Newcastle, having its 

 upper side exposed. When discovered, the part which answers to the 

 stock or centre was visible ; and from all that I can ascertain, both 

 from the fragments still remaining, and a sketch made at the time by 

 Mr Albany Hancock, who was the first to make the specimen known, 

 this part was broken in such a manner as to induce the supposition that 

 a stem had been originally attached to it. The only external character 

 which was displayed on the surface of so much of the branches as was 

 visible at the time of the discovery of this fossil, consisted of a number 

 of rude flutings, which character was the cause of some supposing it to 

 be the branched apex of a Sigillaria : it was further supposed, that the 

 stem had been destroyed or removed ; and, that the apex, by some 

 means or other, had been overturned, and afterwards covered up with 

 sediment — now an argillaceous sandstone. The complete absence of 

 scars was also appealed to as confirmatory of its belonging to the last- 

 named genus, since decorticated specimens of Sigillaria are occasionally 

 to be met with, divested of this character. 



This allusion to the Ouse Burn fossil, makes it necessary for me to 

 mention, that, on May the l7th, 1841, and shortly after the Newcastle 

 Museum had become possessed of the earliest received North Biddick 

 Sigillaria, I read, at a meeting of the Natural History Society of Nor- 

 thumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a paper which gave 

 an account of the last specimen, and which adverted to a character oc- 

 curring on the under side of its base, '* apparently leading to the con- 

 clusion, that Stigmaria is the root of Sigillaria." 



The reading of this paper having brought before Mr Hutton, who was 

 present, a question which had often occuiTed to him, he kindly drew my 

 attention to the Ouse Burn fossil, as likely to assist me in my future re- 

 searches. A few days afterwards, we examined this fossil, when I be- 

 came convinced that it was not the branched apex of a Sigillaria, but 

 the central stock of a Stigmaria. Mr Hutton having some doubts on 

 this point, but being anxious to have it settled, he empowered me to 

 employ some workmen to lay bare the branches ; and, with his accus- 

 tomed liberality, he went to considerable expense in the prosecution of 

 this object. Two of the branches were exposed for upwards of six feet, 

 and both were seen to divide, and to dip into the rock at an angle of 40 

 degrees to the line of stratification : the flutings were observed to become 

 more and more indistinct as they passed downwards ; but still no scars 

 were visible. This was the result of our first inspection. I confess, that at 

 this stage of the inquiry, the opinion I had formed was ahoaost forsaken. 



