I20 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 



For fifty years I have passed and repassed this rock and 

 never seen its contents. Close to the road and to the shore, so 

 that I have passed it on one side in boats and on the other side 

 in carriages. So true is it that one can only see what the mind 

 leads one to notice. My late cruise in the north, where 2ifew of 

 the quartzites are fossiliferous, led " me again to examine the few 

 beds of similar material among our mica slates. A road 

 surveyor had broken off some fresh surfaces to make " metal " 

 for the road. I saw it freshly broken, and the very first fragment 

 revealed what I take to be //a«/-remains — possibly fucoid — in 

 red oxide of iron, beautifully contrasting with the pure white 

 silicious grains of the rock. 



The fossil form consists of small tubular branches, with berries 

 or seed-vessels at frequent intervals, seeming to me to indicate 

 higher vegetable forms than fucoids. The seed-vessels are on 

 small stalks. I don't think I can be mistaken, for under a 

 pocket-lens I can see vascular structure on the walls of the tubes, 

 where they are broken so as to show the inside. 



Will you send me some small example of the ^^ Fucoid Bed" 

 of the Sutherland quartzites for comparison.^ These I have never 

 seen, but I know the worm-casting fossils of Sutherland quartzite 

 well. The " Fucoid Bed " I have never met with, and don't 

 know its appearance. 



The Duke of Argyll to Professor Flower 



Inveraray, Argyllshire, 

 September 28, 1888. 



I have had a careful examination of the rock whence I got 

 the first specimen of plant-remains two days ago. The result 

 is of great interest. The plants are only well seen on a few 

 weathered surfaces where structure comes out clearly. But the 

 clue^ once given, leads farther. We recognise the ferruginous 

 spots which mark the spore-cases, or capsules, all through the 

 quartzite bed, and passing from the top of it into pure mica 

 schists, where they are seen in quantity, spotting the rock with 

 innumerable spots of red oxide of iron. 



1 (We have no examples. — W.H.F.) 



