46 



collars from Runswick Bay, supposed to belong to Zamia 

 Gigas." 



Since the year 1833, 1 have attempted to elucidate the nature 

 of the interesting vegetable bodies found in the oolite of the 

 Yorkshire Coast, and supposed to belong to Zamia Gigas ; and 

 though it was my intention not to publish the conclusions I had 

 formed, until I should have more completely veorked-out the 

 history of these curious fossils, I am induced to submit a few 

 remarks to the Society, from having just perused the paper upon 

 the subject by my friend Mr. Yates, published in the last number 

 of the Society's Proceedings. 



My attention was first drawn to these fossils by the figures in 

 the first plate of the Geology of the Yorkshire Coast, by Messrs. 

 Young and Bird. Soon afterwards my father was so fortunate 

 as to collect some beautiful specimens at Runswick Bay, which 

 he placed in my hands for examination ; but unable to decide 

 anything from these few isolated specimens, I visited the locality 

 of their occurrence for the purpose of ascertaining what other 

 vegetable remains were associated with them. The result was 

 a satisfactory conclusion in my own mind that these heads 

 or '' collars," as I conceive they may more properly be desig- 

 nated, were part of the fructification of some Cycadean Plant. 



On examining the rocks in which they occurred, I only found, 

 in any abundance, the leaves of Zamia Gigas, of Lindley and 

 Hutton — (Zamia Mantellii of Brongniart), — some stems of a 

 Calamite, and fragments of Coniferous wood. Of these three, 

 the " collars" must in all probability have belonged, if to any, 

 either to the first or the last. To ascertain which required 

 further examination. 



I soon found specimens which established two or three 

 material points in the inquiry. — First, that these curious bodies 

 had been supported by a straight, scaly pedicle, around the 

 upper part of which the curved scales constituting the head, 

 or collar, were arranged like the petals of a flower. — Secondly, 

 that a prolongation of this pedicle sometimes passed through 

 the collar, forming its axis, and becoming much narrower 



