

ROOM I. AMBER JET DIAMOND. 23 



Rarely are any large trunks or branches of trees observable 

 in the beds of coal ; the general appearance of the carbon- 

 iferous mass is that of an immense deposit of delicate foliage 

 which has been shed and accumulated in a forest, and conso- 

 lidated by great pressure, while undergoing that peculiar pro- 

 cess by which vegetable matter is converted into carbon. In 

 fine, a gradual transition may be traced from the peat-wood 

 and submerged forests of modern times, in which leaves, 

 fruits, and trunks of indigenous trees are preserved, to those 

 vast deposits of mineral coal, formed by the bitumination of 

 the now extinct plants and trees of the floras which flou- 

 rished in the earlier ages of the globe. 



AMBER, JET, DIAMOND. Table-cases 1, and 8. Before de- 

 scribing the fossil plants whose stems, foliage, and fruit, are 

 displayed in the wall-cases of this room, we must direct atten- 

 tion to the table-cases that contain a fine suite of specimens 

 of Amber [60], Jet, and Diamond 8, [4], for these substances 

 are unquestionably of vegetable origin. 



Amber, so remarkable for its electrical properties, and 

 so much in request for ornamental purposes, is a fossil resin, 

 the product of an extinct species of pine (Pinus succinifer), 

 most nearly allied to Pimis abies, and P. picea, but essen- 

 tially distinct. The Amber in the European markets is 

 principally collected from the shores of the Baltic, between 

 Memel and Konigsberg, being washed out of submerged beds 

 of lignite, and thrown up on the strand by the waves. Amber 

 is occasionally found on the eastern and northern shores of 

 England. The forests of Amber-pines appear to have been 

 situated in the south-eastern part of what is now the bed of 

 the Baltic, in about 55 north latitude, and 37 to 38 east lon- 

 gitude, and were probably destroyed at the commencement 

 of the diluvial period. Insects, spiders, small crustaceans, 

 leaves, and fragments of vegetable tissue, are often imbedded 

 in amber ; and a few hairs and feathers of mammalia and 

 birds have been detected : these organic bodies must have 

 become immersed in this substance when it exuded from the 

 trees in a soft or viscid state, for they are often preserved as 

 fresh and beautiful as if recently embalmed in the liquid 

 resin. Upwards of 800 species of insects have been dis- 

 covered, chiefly Aptera, Diptera, Neuroptera, Coleoptera, Li- 

 bellula, &c. ; by far the greater part belong to extinct forms. 



