142 History of the Sarsens. 
Prestwich has so well shown, the Woolwich-and-Reading Beds have 
been their chief source. (See also the Appendix.) 
VII.—Fosstz Roots in SarseEns. 
The general absence of fossils in the Sarsens has been noticed by 
Prestwich, W. Cunnington, W. Whitaker, J. Adams, and others. 
A few obscure relics (imperfect casts) of shells have been seen; but 
fossilized bits of coniferous wood and of more doubtful vegetation 
are known, and especially traces of roots and rootlets, abundant in 
some of the blocks. A piece of Sarsen Stone collected previous 
to 1810 at “Stonehenge” by Mr. William Smith (whom English 
‘geologists delight to honour) is preserved in the British Museum 
(Natural History), numbered V. 665. It is full of sub-parallel 
cylindrical cavities due to roots (like those in Fig. 3). W. Smith’s 
realization of the geological origin of the Sarsens has already 
been alluded to (p. 189). One of Mr. W. Cunnington’s specimens 
bears a label, written at the time of collecting: “ Plants in Sarsen, 
near Stonehenge, August 4th, 1847”; and in his paper in the 
“ Devizes Gazette,’ June, 1852, he alluded to traces of obscure 
vegetables in these stones. In his Memoir, read May, 1853 (Q. J. 
G. S., vol. x., p. 123), Mr. Prestwich noticed “rootlet-like im- 
pressions” in both the Sarsens and the blocks in the Bagshot Sands. 
In a paper read at the Salisbury Meeting of the Wiltshire Archzo- 
Jogical and Natural History Society, Mr. W. Cunnington (quoted 
by Mr. W. Long, Wiltshire Magazine, No. 28, July, 1866, vol. x., 
p- 73) remarked “sometimes the masses are formed of unusually 
fine sand, and the result is a very dense hard rock. In this variety 
are commonly found the remains of what appear to be fucoids or 
sea-weeds. They do not exhibit any very marked structure, but are 
certainly vegetable.” In the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural 
History Society’s Magazine, No. 26, August, 1865, vol. ix., pp. 
167—198, in his paper on the Geology of the Berks and Hants ‘Ex- 
tension and Marlborough Railways, Mr. Thomas Codrington, F.G.S., 
‘states (p. 168) that “In a valley between Hungerford and Little 
-Bedwin there are many masses of puddingstone, consisting of rounded 
flint pebbles in a base of ferruginous grit. This pudding-stone 
