394 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW 



XXXIX. 



ox THE PAGODA STONE OF THE CHINESE. 



{Ortlioceras, sp.) 



BY JOHN GRIEVE, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.E., F.L.S. 



With one Plate. [VI.] 

 [Read 2Sth April, 18SG.] 



This species of OrtJioceras was described by Dr. 

 S. P. Woodward in the Quarterly Journal of the 

 Geological Society for 1856,"^ from two specimens in 

 the British Museum, which were obtained some 200 

 miles from Shanghai, and had been used as screens, 

 having been mounted in carved frames on stands. 

 They are labelled " Devonian ? " 



In a paragraph in the Geologist for 1860, f we read 

 that Dr. Hochstetter, after referring to the value 

 set upon groups of crystals and organic remains by 

 the Chinese, remarks that "plates of dark brown 

 limestone imbedding splendid specimens of Ortho- 

 ceratites are, when polished and framed, highly 

 esteemed as ornamental furniture for state apart- 

 ments. They are said to be frequent at Yunnan," 

 and he adds, " their Chinese name of Pagoda stone 

 is derived from the general opinion that these 

 Orthoceratites, showing indeed in their alveolus, 

 and in the septa going through them, a certain 

 similitude ^vith the structure of these buildings, 

 are formed underground in places on whose surface 

 the towers of a pagoda project their shadows." 1 

 have examined all the volumes of the Geologist, 

 and the Journals of the Geological Society for the 

 last thirty years, the Proceedings of kindred societies, 

 as well as the more recent travels in China within 



♦ Vol. xii., p. 378. t p. 419. 



