428 



the beginning of the inquiry in the minds of some of my friends, 

 was worked up into a definite shape. 



The occurrence of stones enclosed in wood is not a novel pheno- 

 menon. Mr. Robert Brown has called my attention to two cases 

 as recorded in the following works : 



" De lapide in trunco betulse reperto. G.F.Richter in Acta Phys. 

 Med. Acad. Nat. Curios, volume 3, page 66*." 



"Descriptio Saxi in Quercu inventi. Kellander, Acta Literaria 

 et Scientise Suecise." 1739, pp. 502, 503. 



Since the Battersea phenomenon was announced, Professor Hens- 

 low, to whom I had applied, wrote to me saying, that he possessed 

 a remarkable example of a stone which was found imbedded in the 

 heart of a tree, in sawing it up in Plymouth Dockyard ; and he has 

 obligingly sent up the specimen, which is now also exhibited. In 

 this case, judging from the mineral character of the rock, and its 

 being slightly magnetic, Professor Henslow supposed that it was 

 perhaps a volcanic bomb. On referring it to Dr. Shepard, that 

 gentleman entertains the opinion that it is also a meteorite, and 

 states that it resembles certain meteoric stones with which he is ac- 

 quainted ; suspicions of which had also been entertained by Professor 

 Henslow, From the examination of a minute fragment which I de- 

 tached from this stone, it appears to be composed of a base of fel- 

 spathic matter, with minute crystals of felspar and of magnetic iron 

 pyrites. Externally it has a trachytic aspect, though, when frac- 

 tured, it more resembles, in the opinion of Mr. Warington Smyth, 

 a pale Cornish elvan or porphyry than any other British rock with 

 which it can be compared. Whatever may have been the origin of 

 this stone, which is of the size of a child's head, it is essentially dif- 

 ferent from the metalliferous mass from Battersea, to which atten- 

 tion has been specially invited, and its position in the heart of an 

 oak is equally remarkable. Like the Battersea specimen, the seg- 

 ment of wood from Plymouth Dockyard is characterized by an inte- 

 rior bark which folds round the sinuosities of the included stone. 



In respect to the envelopment of manufactured materials in trees, 



* " Lapis praedurus subalbicans et manifesto siliceus pruni ferme aut juglandis 

 miuoris magnitudine. * * * * Nidus ad figuram lapidis non plane accommodatus, 

 sed quadrangulus, et bine illinc in mediocres rimas desinens, corticeque imprimis 

 notahili, non multum ab exteriori cute diverse, maximam pattern vestitus." 



