448 



Tuesday, '2d January 1844. 



Dr ABERCROMBIE, V.P, in the Chair. 



The following Communications were read : — 



1. On the Fossil Vegetables of the Sandstone of A)'rshire, 

 illustrative of a series of them, as a Donation for the 

 Society's Museum. By J. Shedden Patrick, F.R.S.E., 

 F.RS.A., &c. 



The author, after mentioning that they were collected by himself 

 from a quarry on the estate of Mr Warner of Ardeer, in the parish of 

 Stevenston and district of Cuninghame, shortly described the quarry, 

 as belonging in its geological position to the carboniferous group ; and 

 stated that it is considered the most vah;able for white freestone in 

 the west of Scotland. He mentioned the different strata in the order 

 of their occurrence ; and stated that coal had been ^vrought out from 

 beneath it, within the remembrance of the present generation. He 

 said that the fossils are not confined to any one stratum of the sand- 

 stone, but are found in them aU, wherever the stone is faidty. He 

 had counted about five strata at the deepest part of the quarry, 

 separated from each other by thin layers of shale ; and fossds are 

 found in all these strata, chiefly, however, where the sandstone is 

 rendered impine by a mixture of greenstone and ironstone. There 

 have been above thirty different kinds of fossils found in this quarry 

 (and in the schist connected with the coal) ; among them many beauti- 

 ful impressions of Stigmariie, SigiUarke, Lepidodendra, and other 

 plants unknown in the j^resent day. Among the ferns wiU be found 

 Sphenopteris, Nenropieris, Pecopteris, &c. The fossUs which occur 

 in greatest profusion are the Calamites. Of these, the two kiuds 

 met with most commonly are Calamites nodosus and C. approximatus. 

 The following species are also foimd, but not so frequently, C. can- 

 lueformls, C. Mougeotii, C. aremeceus, and C. vertlcillatus. 



The Stenibergia approximata, designated by Lindley " a most 

 singular coal-measure plant occurring in most coal-fields in Great 

 Britain, but not abundant anywhere," is like^vise found here ; the 

 specimens obtained are in general smaD, but one or two fine large 

 ones have been got. They are usually found in the sandstone, and 

 are covered with a Sue coal, which adheres either in the form of an 

 even, thick, glossy integument, or in a powdery state, to the siu-face 

 of the stem. Some very fine examples of Sternhergia^ nodosa have 

 likewise been procured. 



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