438 



Bajer describes several stones, bearing a near resemblance to 

 fruits ; such as olive, almond, plurn, and cherry-stones, apples, 

 pears*, &c. But that these are accidentally figured stones, not 

 deriving their forms from the fruits they resemble, is most probable, 

 from the manner in which they are spoken of, he considering them 

 himself rather as sports of nature. Among these, is one said to 

 appear like a pod of capsicum ; whilst another is said exactly to 

 resemble a musk-pear, a fragment of a shell completely sup- 

 plying the place of a stalk. 



Scheuchzer describes a petrified nutmeg, as being a white flint 

 of a compressed cylindrical form, marked with striae passing from 

 one end to the other, and bearing a strong resemblance to the 

 nutmeg-)-. The figure, however, certainly more resembles that of a 

 coralloid than of a nutmeg. He also figures, in Fig. 89 of the 

 same work, a pyritous fossil fruit of a very curious structure, which 

 is sulcated from the apex to the base, and marked with small pro* 

 jecting points along its lower edge, so as to give it somewhat of the 

 appearance of a coronet. 



Helwing mentions a petrified walnut, in such a manner, as to lead 

 to the supposition that its resemblance to the fruit itself must have 

 been very close. The petrifaction of an almond, mentioned by this 

 author, does not seem to have approached the fruit very nearly in 

 similitude. He also describes a black stone as being very like to a 

 small smooth bean J. But when it is considered, that at this period 

 the notions entertained respecting the petrifaction of vegetable sub- 

 stances were so incorrect, that the petrified spines of the echinus, 

 or sea-urchin, were referred to the vegetable kingdom ; and that 

 the accidental forms of pyrites, as well as of argillaceous, and sili- 



* Oryctographia Norica, p. 45. 



t Lithographia Helvetia, p. 42. Fig. 57. 



t Lithographia Angerburgica, p. 37. 



