16 Address of the President. 



oily fluid, wliicli flowed out on the slightest pressure. But 

 where the woody texture was more open it had passed from 

 the annual rings in those parts, and had, by the more free 

 access of air, been converted into transparent solid layers, 

 having a shining appearance like wax. This was particularly 

 observed in the direction of the medullary rays. When split 

 in this direction thin cakes of a spermaceti-looking substance 

 were found coating the wood, and communicating a soapy or 

 greasy feeling when touched. Although having no crystalline 

 form in the wood, these thin plates, when dissolved in alcohol 

 and ether, and carefully evaporated, readily formed crystals. 

 These were generally grouped in masses of needles, radiating 

 from a centre, and resembling very much nodules of wavellite. 

 When heated in a tube they fuse at about 320° Fahr., and 

 sublime in the form of oil drops, which on cooling become 

 crystalline. From some portions of the solid matter from the 

 wood were obtained at once, by heat, at a comparatively low 

 temperature of about 120° Fahr., and without passing through 

 the oUy stage, delicate flattened four-sided prisms, half an 

 inch long, and belonging to the rhombohedral system. These 

 crystals were distinct from the radiated nodules. This proves 

 that the solid matter in the wood was evidently a mixture of 

 several crystalline bodies. 



" The small quantity of matter at my command did not 

 permit of a separation and fuller examination of these different 

 bodies. There can be no doubt, however, that none of the 

 oily or crystallisable matter in this fossil tree was derived 

 from the surrounding peat. The pine-tree must have 

 contained, in its fresh state, an unusually large quantity of 

 turpentine, from which, by slow and very imperfect oxida- 

 tion, the various substances found in the fossil were formed. 

 In the inner and more compact portions, from which air 

 was excluded, the turpentine preserved its fluid character, 

 but possessed so little of the turpentine odour, and had 

 acquired a peculiar aromatic smell of its own, that it is very 



