Miscellanies. 415 



" The plates of this work are twenty nine in number, and with but 

 one or two exceptions are admirably executed ; they are alike beau- 

 tiful in their general eftect, and accurate in anatomical details." 



37. 31r. Witham's trasparent sections of fossil wood. — Ed. — 

 We-mentioned these sections at pa. 108, Vol. xxv, of this Journal, 

 and the very beautiful work of IMr. Witham, which describes thera 

 as well as the fossil trees from which they are derived. 



We have received from the author, copies of a second edition of 

 his work, much enlarged and improved with additional colored draw- 

 ings. It is an elegant tribute to the arts as well as to science, and 

 especially to a branch of very difficult investigation. 



We have received also 'from INIr. Witham, a new series of sec- 

 tions of fossil wood, in thin slices, adhering to plates of glass ground 

 down so thin that the structure of the wood is perfectly obvious. 

 This is a great step towards a knowledge of the early 'vegetation 

 of our planet, and it appears certain that no one ever saw the iriter- 

 nal structure of an opake fossil until it was revealed by the sagacity 

 of INIr. Witham, aided by the practical skill of Mr. Magillivray and 

 Mr. Nicoll, who appears to have pursued the same path which was 

 first cleared, with much labor and expense, by Mr. Witham, (See 

 Jameson's Journal, No. 32, page 310.)_ Mr. Witham's sections 

 are extremely beautiful ; in the collection which we have recently 

 received, the Anabathera and the Lepidodendron, are new, some of 

 them are sliced in three different ways — transversely — longitudina- 

 rily and obliquely, so as to shew the varieties of structure. 



The position of the fossil trees which have been examined by 

 Mr. Witham is not less extraordinary than their structure. 



We understand that it is admitted by all who have examined the 

 geological facts, that the position of the Craigleith trees is eitiier in 

 the bottom of the coal fields, or in the mountain limestone group, 

 and that the othqr are in the grindstone post — a variety of coal 

 sandstone. 



It appears that similar trees occur from the earliest periods of ve- 

 getation up to the highest part of the coal field, at least as the ar- 

 rangement exists in this part of Britain. It is obvious, jhat forests 

 composed of large trees, with firm woody fibre, existed antecedent- 

 ly to and contemporaneously with the deposition of the coal. In 

 many countries, mountains have been piled over the coal strata and 

 over the fossil trees, and in various parts of the world, the great se- 



