XV. Description of a Vegetable Impression found in the Quar- 

 ry of Craigleith. By Thomas Allan, Esq. F. R. S. 

 LoND. & Edin. 



(Read January 22. 1821.^ 



X SOME time ago had the honour to present to the Royal So- 

 ciety, a specimen of a very singular fossil which had been 

 found in the freestone quarry of Craigleith, near this city. 

 It presented the appearance so commonly met with in the 

 sandstone of the coal-formation, — an impression of what has 

 always been considered as the bark of a vegetable connected 

 with the Palm-tribe ; but it differed from any thing I had ever 

 before seen of the kind, by having circular marks ranged in a 

 line along the surface, being apparently the impressions ol' 

 flowers or fruit. As neither of these grow directly from the 

 stem of any plant now known, except among the Cactus ge- 

 nus, this impression might have been referred to it, had not 

 the regularity of distance between these supposed flowers, 

 pointed out the improbability ; and it consequently must be 

 referred to some one, the prototype of which is no longer 

 known. 



The size of the specimen, of which the annexed engraving 

 is a very exact representation, is twenty-one inches in length, 



VOL. IX. p. I. G g and 



