Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 589 



Sarsden Stone, of the " Bagshot " series, from the gravel near 

 Frimley, Surrey, I find remarkably clear indications of vertical 

 rootlets, — that is, numerous, irregularly tubular cavities, sometimes 

 furcate, more or less occupied by ochreous matter, which breaks with 

 a kind of thready structure, and leaves linear impressions, like those 

 of woody fibres. Seven of these root-marks, passing through a slab 

 more than an inch thick, are exposed in a fracture six inches long ; 

 and the upper and lower surfaces of the slab are irregularly pitted 

 by having been weathered and worn at and around the exposed ends 

 of the tubes. These are more open and trumpet-shaped on one 

 surface than on the other, towards which latter is directed the 

 occasional branching of the rootlets. 



Similar vertical root-marks are found, as is well known, in other 

 sandstones ; notably in those of the Estuarine series in the Lower 

 Oolite of Yorkshire ; and in those of the coal-bearing sandstone 

 of Hoganas and Helsingborg in South Sweden. Such rootlets, in a 

 carbonized state, are seen in the clay-seams underlying the lignites 

 of the "Bracklesham " Series 1 in Alum Bay, Isle of Wight. Vertical 

 root-marks, but usually very long and thin, are also seen in the 

 Hastings Sandstone. (Geologist, vol. v. 1862, p. 136, fig. 9.) 



The definite disclosure of the vertical tubular Boot-marks on the 

 Sarsden Stone above mentioned tends to explain the cause of some 

 of the varied pittings seen on many weathered blocks of this stone ; 

 and I find that, on fracture, some at least of such weathered pittings 

 are succeeded downwai-ds in the stone by obscure, discoloured, 

 vertical lines, which are probably due to the imperfect mineralization 

 of the contents of original root-holes. 



It would be interesting to know with what marine or estuarine 

 plants, Zostera, Potamogeton, etc., such vertical root-mai - ks in these 

 old sandstones and clays originated. 



VI. — A Chapter in the History op Meteorites. 



By Walter Flight, D.Sc, F.G.S., 



Of the Department of Mineralogy, British Museum. 



{Continued from page 560.) 



1866, June 9th. — Knyahinya, near Nagy-Berezna, Unghvar, 

 Hungary. 2 



Shortly after this remarkable shower of meteorites had taken place 

 two very full reports on the occurrence were drawn up by von 

 Haidinger. It is computed that over a very limited area more than 

 a thousand stones, weighing in all from 8 to 10 cwt., must have 

 fallen. The largest found is now preserved in the Vienna Collec- 



1 The root-marked Sarsden Stone came probably from the Upper Bagshot Sand : 

 a rather higher stage than that of the white clays here alluded to. 



2 A. Kenngott. Sitzber. Ah. Wiss. Wien, 1869, lix. 873. Phil. Mag., 1869, 

 xxxvii. 424. — J . V. Schiaparelli. Entwurf einer astronomischen Theorie der Stern- 

 schnuppeu. 1871. Stettin: Nahmer. Page 267. — E. H. von Biumhauer. Archives 

 Neerlandaises, 1872, vii. 146. — See also W. von Haidinger. Sitzber. Ah. Wiss. 

 Wien, liv. 200 and 513. — G. Bose. Monatsber. Ak. Wiss. Berlin, lxvii. 203. 



DECADE II. — VOL. II. — NO. XII. 38 



