53 



1. FOSSIL TREES*.' 2. FOSSIL PLANTst. 3. FOSSIL ROOTSJ. ' 

 4. FOSSIL STALKS ||. 5. FOSSIL LEAVES. 6. FOSSIL FRUITS 

 AND SEED VESSELS^- 



With respect to FOSSIL TREES, as well as with respect to every 

 other fossil of which I shall treat, I shall adopt that which appears 

 to be the mode best adapted to excite your interest, and to secure 

 to you every necessary information. I shall endeavour to supply 

 you with an historical sketch of what has been, hitherto, made 

 known respecting them ; to state the several theories by which it . 

 has been proposed to account for their origin ; and lastly, to lay 

 before you the facts, which later observations have discovered, and 

 the opinions which these appear to warrant. 



That the existence of fossil trees was known, in very remote pe- 

 riods, there cannot exist the least doubt ; but no rational opinion, 

 respecting their nature or origin, has been offered until modern 

 times. Theophrastus** speaks of a stone, bearing in its external 

 appearance, a resemblance to rotten wood. Straboft relates that 

 trees, much resembling the laurel and the olive, were buried in al- 

 most the whole of the mouth of the Red Sea ; which during the 

 ebb, were sometime exposed, and which, during the flowing in of 

 the tide, were sometimes torn up. This, he observes, is very asto- 

 nishing ; since, even higher up in the country, no trees are to be 

 found. Eratosthenes relates the same circumstance, as observable, 

 in the Persian Sea. PausaniasJJ mentions a fossil wood, which 



* Phytolithi Arborum, of Linnaeus ; Lithoxyla, of Wallerius ; and Stelechites and Den- 

 drolithes, of others. 



t Phytolithi Plantarum, of Linnaeus ; and Plants petrificatae, of Wallerius 



J Rhizolithi, of Wallerius. H Lithocalami, of Wallerius. 



Lithophylla, of Wallerius ; and Lithobyblia, of others. 



^j Carpolithi, of Wallerius ; and Spermolithi, of others. 



** Theophrast. I1EPI TQN AI0QN. sect. xxix. ft Strabon. Geograph. lib. xvi. 



tJ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio, lib. i. cap. 43. 



