APPLICATIONS OF THE MICROSCOPE. 99 



to one of our highest authorities, the late Mr. 

 William Nicol, he at once decided that the 

 1 reticulated texture of the transverse section, 

 though somewhat compressed, clearly indicated 

 a coniferous origin/ A farther interest accom- 

 panies the case, viz., that in this specimen the 

 Microscope presented to our view the most an- 

 cient of Scottish lignites." 1 



(2.) Those who have not examined, under 

 the Microscope, thin sections of fossil organized 

 matter very fine slices of vegetable or animal 

 remains prepared according to the ingenious 

 plan first adopted, and with such success, by the 

 late Mr. Nicol, can have no adequate idea either 

 of the beauty so revealed in these specimens, or 

 of the nature of the evidence supplied for the 

 determination of nice and difficult questions 

 connected with fossil organisms. In a treatise 

 still unpublished, but destined, we would 

 fondly hope, to be presented to the public eye 

 at no- distant period recently written by the 



1 Testimony of the Bocks, pp. 435, 436 ; Old Bed Sand- 

 stone, p. 134. " One unique specimen, a true wood of the 

 Araucarian family, the oldest which has yet presented its 

 structure to the Microscope." From seventh edition (1858) 

 of the Old Bed Sandstone, p. 361. 



