1844.] 359 



The well-known displacement of the beds of the lower green 

 sand, exposed on the road-side near the top of Tilburstow Hill, is 

 about one mile and a quarter north-east of the excavation I have 

 been describing. 



3, Remarks upon Sternbergi^. By John S. Dawes, Esq., F.G.S. 



a. Fragment of Sternbergia, showing the internal central structure, apparently 



lamellar. . 



b. Portion of the branch of a walnut tree, showmg somewhat similar structure. 



In the autumn of 1838 certain specimens of vegetable remains 

 were discovered in the coal grit at Oldbury, near Birmingham, 

 which appeared to show, very distinctly, the internal structure of 

 those remarkable fossils, the Sternbergiaj. The circumstance was 

 considered, at the time, completely to corroborate the opinion 

 that they were distinct plants ; but having recently examined 

 these specimens with more attention, and having had an oppor- 

 tunity to compare them with others, since discovered, I am 

 enabled, I believe, to point out that these curious columnar forms 

 are merely casts of the medullary cavities of stems or branches of 

 trees, similar to that at Darlaston, lately described ; for, upon one 

 of the fossils alluded to, the interior of which is composed of a 

 series of horizontal plates, we find that a part of the woody tissue 

 of the tree is still attached to the column, and another specimen 

 which shows, upon its exterior, traces of the characteristic rings, 

 exhibits also a considerable portion of adhering wood. But more 

 direct evidence is afforded by a branch, now converted into iron- 

 stone (see fig. a), down the centre of which a distinct arrangement of 

 similar plates may be observed, occasionally anastomosing or rather 

 merffina; one into the other, exactly as the external forms of 



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