205 Mr. Wood's Account of some Fossil Stems of Trees. 



No. XXI. — Account of some Fossil Stems of Trees, found penetrating 

 through the Strata above the High Main Coal, at Killingworth Colliery, 

 at a depth of 4^% fathoms. By Mr. Nicholas Wood. 



Read November 15, 1830. 



The occurrence of Fossil Trees in the Sandstones of the Coal forma- 

 tions of different countries has been noticed by many observers. Messrs. 

 CoNYBEARE and Phillips, in their Introductory Notice of the Coal For- 

 mations of England, give numerous examples, where different kinds of 

 fossil stems or trunks of trees have been found, principally derived from 

 the labours of Count Sternberg and Mr. Steinhauer. Monsieur 

 Brongniart, in the Annales des Mines for 1821, describes several exist- 

 ing on the Sandstone above the uppermost Coal near St. Etiene. Dr. 

 Brewster also gives an account of some existing in Scotland, and Mr. 

 Trevelyan, of the existence of some in the cliffs of the carboniferous 

 strata on the east coast of Northumberland, and more recently we have 

 the example of one found embedded in the Sandstone Quarry of Wide- 

 open, near this town. Several of these are of foreign localities, and 

 most of them from quarries near the surface of the earth, and almost 

 all seem more as embedded fossil remains, than as prototypes of vege- 

 tables which have lived on the spot where their remains are found : at 

 least, almost all, if not every one of the instances leave this latter fact 

 undecided Of the numerous specimens cited by M. Brongniart, 

 only one kind "appeared to spread out in the manner of a root, but 

 without any ramification." A description is given in Thomson's An- 

 nals of Philosophy, November, 1820, of the trunk of a tree found in the 

 Sandstones of the Coal formation of Glasgow, the roots of which, espe- 

 cially four of large size, dipped under the ground like ordinary trees. 

 The Rev. P. Brewster also figures a stem with branching roots, found at 



