184 ORGANIC REMAINS. 



the middle of the leaf being raised. In correspondence with this, 

 tlie under side of the leaves of the head are depressed in the middle. 

 Fig-. 1 of Plate III has the bushy aspect of the hippuris, or 

 mares tail; but is more likely to be a fern. Fig. 2 appears also to be 

 a fern. Some specimens in the sandstone bear a great resemblance 

 to the 2)teris aquilina, or common brake. 



Some of the harder sandstone beds, above the alum rock, 

 particularly some whitish beds, abound with markings of roots, 

 and slender branches, of trees or shrubs. Few of these afford very 

 interesting specimens, especially as the woody substance is generally 

 gone, and only a cast of it remains in the rock, covered with a thin 

 blackish crust, or bark. 



Fig. 3 is a specimen of one of the most singular vegetable 

 ^ 2-> -- petrifactions, occurring in this district. It is part of a kind of reed 



or cane, found in a sandstone bed at the top of the cliff opposite 

 High Whitby. The bed is four or five feet thick, resting on a bed of 

 bituminous and clayey shale, in which there is a coal seam. Over 

 the sandstone is a stratum of sandy shale. The reeds, which are very 

 numerous, are arranged parallel to one another, and perpendicular 

 to the plane of the strata ; as if they had grown on the spot, previous 

 to the time when the strata acquired their present dip, with their 

 roots in the clayey shale below. 



The stalks are from an inch to near two inches in diameter, 

 and are divided by joints placed at intervals of from two or three 

 inches to eight or nine. At each joint, as may be seen in the Figure, 

 there is a brown striated band, similar to what we see in the equise- 

 tum; and this band has been fringed, though it is only in some 

 instances that we can discover the fringe diverging from it into the 

 surrounding stone. From above each joint, a lateral branch has 

 proceeded ; and this takes place alternately, so that where a branch 

 has gone from the right side at one joint, it issues from the left at the 



