46 DESCRIPTION OF FOSSIL TREES DISCOVERED 



gated cellules are usually very regular in their direction. Here, however, 

 the case is different, their walls being more or less tortuous. This circum- 

 stance will account for the separation of the areolae on their walls, in which 

 respect there is often produced an appearance corresponding to that peculiar 

 to the genus Peuce, instituted by the learned authors of the Fossil Flora, 

 for a plant found in the same place as that delineated in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, 

 of the present plate. Is it possible that these figures, and those represent- 

 ing the Peuce Withami, are taken from the same plant, of which the tis- 

 sue has been perfectly preserved in the former, and much distorted in the 

 latter case ? I am convinced, however, that notwithstanding the different 

 appearances exhibited by Fig. 8. of Plate X., in which the areolae are 

 sometimes separated, and arranged in one or two rows, the plant is very 

 nearly allied to those found at Wideopen and Ushaw, if indeed it be not of 

 the same species, for in some parts the regular reticulated tissue is distinct- 

 ly seen to be disposed in two or three series, as characteristic of Pinites. 



Fig. 9- In the longitudinal section parallel to the bark, the tissue is al- 

 so distorted. The medullary rays, however, are generally shorter, and al- 

 though many of them are in single rows, many also consist of two or three 

 series of cellules ; for which reason, I am inclined to consider the species as 

 distinct. The areola? of the reticulated walls of the elongated cellules are 

 also somewhat larger than those of the Wideopen and Ushaw fossils. Up- 

 on the whole, this may be considered as a distinct species, to which I pro- 

 pose giving the name of Pinites ambiguus. 



FOSSIL PLANTS FOUND IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE COAL-FIELD. 



Plate IX. Fig. 5. Represents a portion of a transverse slice of a fossil 

 vegetable, which was found in the neighbourhood of Newbiggin, on the 

 coast of Northumberland, where similar stems are frequently exposed to 

 view by the action of the waters. This fossil presents a very indistinct ap- 

 pearance of the concentric layers. The black line in the figure, however, is 

 apparently merely a fissure. 



