—— ee 
E.. Hitchcock on a Brown Coal Deposit in Brandon, Vt. 101 
side, and as I have found only one or two specimens, I have not 
examined the inside. I have never seen anything like a pod. 
Fig. 19 is an exceedingly beautiful seed, with a hard though 
thin and frail shell, elegantly striated longitudinally, by waving 
lines, and corresponding ridges, too fine to be represented on the 
rawing. This is jet black ; but on breaking through it, we find 
a soft light-colored lining membrane, which evidently once en- 
closed the kernel. But that has disappeared. ‘The point of at- 
tachment is not at either extremity, but near one of them, ex- 
tending a third of the length of the seed, as shown upon the 
drawing, It is not an uncommon species, though apt to be over- 
looked from its minuteness. I- have probably obtained thirty 
specimens. 
ing the envelop of a pulpy fruit. It is still 
quite elastic, and less changed than any of the 
rest of the fruits, But no signs of what it once 
Contained remain. 
heabove descriptions, [am aware, are quite 
Ineagre and defective. Probably a sagacious 
botanist, skilled in fossils, would detect more species among my 
Specimens. Some of them resemble a good deal drawings of 
the fossil fruit and seeds of the London clay, as figured by 
Mr. Werbank, in the first number of his work on that subject. 
But have thought it unwise, without seeing his specimens, to 
Institute any comparisons. General considerations make it very 
Probable, that fossil fruits from Vermont, will differ specifically 
even generically from those of Europe, even of the same ge- 
Ological period. 
‘he only other fossil fruits that I have known to be found in 
var country, are a few from the tertiary strata at Richmond, Va. 
respect to these, Prof. Jeffries Wyman has kindly furnished 
me with the following description : 
. 20 My examinations at Richmond I have frequently found 
lignite, and occasionally fruits; but as I was more anxious for 
“ues, I gave them but little attention. I have identified a spe- 
rica Carya, ( walnut) which was so pronounced by Mr. Tesche- 
macher, Prof. r. Gray. I have also found one 
Species of pine cone, in company with pine lignite. The latter 
hdition of rotten wood, soft enough to yield to the tip of 
the finger, into lignite of the usual hardness and having the coal- 
like fracture, T %, 
