lOO • PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1745. 



according to the method observed in the 3d edition of Ray's Synopsis. According 

 to Micheli, it seems to belong to the genus of polyporus. 



And as Mr. M. does not think it necessary to constitute a new genus, he 

 called it, Boletus caule ramosa, summitatibus concavis expansis, ramis minoribus 

 in acutum mucronem desinentibus. See fig. 8, pi. 2. 



On the f-'egelatimi of Melon Seeds 33 Years old; and on a Fossil of a Man. By 

 Roger Gale, Esq. F. R. S. N° 475, p. 265. 



About Jan. 1742-3, Mr. G. accidentally found a paper of melon seeds, that 

 he had laid by, with the date of the year 17 10 on it. He sowed some of them, not 

 with any great hopes of their coming up ; but to his great surprise, he had a fine 

 number of plants from them, which all prospered very well, till they had put 

 out 4 leaves, when they were all lost by an accident. This long retention of 

 their vegetative quality may probably be ascribed to the oiliness of the seed, and 

 the hardness of its outer coat. 



We have few or no fossils in this country (Yorkshire) ; but a friend in Staf- 

 fordshire says that that country abounds much in fossils; such as sea-shells, 

 rock plants, and other marine bodies left at the deluge. Near Bakewell in Der- 

 byshire was lately found the skeleton of a man, with some stags' horns, as the 

 workmen were driving a sough, or drain, to a lead mine, about 9 yards deep 

 from the surface of the earth, and about 40 fathoms from the beginning of 

 the sough. There were found with the skeleton stags' horns; two pieces of 

 which Mr. G. had ; viz. the brow-antler, which was 9 inches long, and seemed 

 to have about 2 inches broken off the tip end ; the other a piece of the large 

 horn near the head, and was 3 inches diameter. Both the horns of the stag, 

 and the rib-bones of the skeleton, were much decayed ; and as soon as the head 

 of the latter was exposed to the air, it crumbled all away, except a piece of the 

 lower jaw. Several of the larger teeth were taken out, which were covered with 

 theirnatural enamel,and perfectly sound. The placewhere these things were found, 

 is on every side surrounded with a rocky petrified substance, or terra lapidea, by 

 the miners called tuft, so hard, as they- say, as to strike fire against their tools. 

 This substance lay above the bones and horns a yard and half thick or more, and 

 on either side; and beneath them to a breadth and depth uncertain; so that it 

 appears, that the skeleton and horns lay in a cavity, which was not however 

 contiguous to them, there being a sort of soft coarse clay or marl, interspersed 

 thick with little petrified balls, or pellets of the same kind of substance as the 

 tuft, for near a quarter of a yard round them ; but none of the bones seemed in 

 any degree to be petrified. The workmen conjectured there was more of the 

 skeleton to be found ; but they dug no farther than was necessary to complete 

 tVieir sough. 



