Mr. Wood's Account of some Fossil Stems of Trees. 213 



stem of the fossil is imbedded ; the very perfect, unbroken, uninter- 

 rupted, and minute impressions of the vegetable nature of the original 

 which they retain, no other conclusion can be drawn, than that their 

 transformation from living vegetables to fossil organic remains has been 

 the result of the deposition of the silicious matter into the hollow trunks 

 of these plants ; and that this must have taken place while the vegeta- 

 tion was in its perfect state of organization, and that it must have been 

 done in the most quiet manner, so as to leave impressions of the most 

 minute texture of the external coat of the vegetables. If, therefore, we 

 suppose that the filling up of the stem of this plant has been effected by 

 the quiet deposition of the silicious matter within it, deposited in the 

 waj' of sediment, while the vegetation was perfect ; we cannot suppose 

 that it could be transported from one place to another while the conso- 

 lidation of the whole was imperfect ; for no material, of either a fluid 

 or semi-fluid nature, could convey, suspended within it, any distance, 

 so many stems of so frail a nature, and yet preserve their upright posi- 

 tion and original form so very perfect. But the fact of the roots pene- 

 trating, without injury to their natural form, a substance of so different 

 a nature from that of the mineral filling the stem, and from that of the 

 strata in which it is inclosed — and the fact also of the bed containing 

 the roots, and the superior one embracing the stem being of so different 

 a nature, and separated from each other by a smooth, level, and distinct 

 parting — preclude the idea that the whole mass has been transported 

 from any distance to the place where they were found, either while in a 

 fluid or semi-fluid state : And as we cannot suppose they could be so 

 transported when the consolidation was perfect, the legitimate conclusion 

 is, that these Fossil Stems are the representatives of vegetables that have 

 lived on the spot on which they were found. It is not necessary, per- 

 haps, in a paper of this kind, to pursue the theoretical conclusions 

 resulting from the facts developed by the discovery of these fossil re- 

 mains any further ; but we may be inclined to indulge a supposition, 

 from a minute examination of all the phenomena attending the struc- 

 ture, texture, and position of these remains, and their connection with 

 the strata enveloping them, that they are the prototypes of living veo-e. 



