A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 113 



announced in the York memoir, viz., that the objects 

 were part of the fructification of some Cycadean 

 plant. The rocks in which my specimens had been 

 obtained were crowded with the Cycadean fronds of 

 Zamia gigas and I occasionally discovered fragments 

 of Cycadean stems in the same strata ; but all this 

 was much too hypothetical to satisfy the cautious 

 Robert Brown. He did not recommend the publica- 

 tion of the memoir, which was then returned to me. 

 Not satisfied with this, I sent the communication to 

 my friend Edward Forbes, then a rising star in the 

 scientific circles of the metropolis. He wrote to me 

 acknowledging the receipt of my paper, but I heard 

 no more about it for several months. Tired of 

 waiting so long and fruitlessly, I wrote to Forbes, 

 inquiring what he proposed to do with the memoir, 

 when I received from him a most penitent letter. 

 He said again that he had received my packet, and 

 that he had at once put it in some safe place, but 

 that he had never afterwards been able to discover 

 where that place was. Years rolled by before I heard 

 anything more of my MS., but I learnt from others 

 that such was the state of confusion in Forbes' study 

 and library, that the prospect of its recovery was hope- 

 less. I then abandoned the subject and turned my 

 attention to other matters ; but having begun this 

 narrative I may as well jump over a few years to record 

 the ultimate development of the story. Forbes died in 

 1854. A letter soon afterwards reached me from 

 one of his executors, stating that they had found 



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