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SECTION IV. 



DESCRIPTION OF FOSSIL TREES DISCOVERED IN THE STRATA OF THE 

 LIAS AND OOLITIC SERIES. 



FOSSIL VEGETABLES FOUND NEAR WHITBY. 



In the Carboniferous series of England and Scotland, we have seen that 

 several species retaining organic tissue, and referrible to four distinct genera, 

 have been found. I am not aware that any have been discovered in the mag- 

 nesian limestone, the new red sandstone, or the strata associated with them. 

 We now enter upon the examination of the lias. Hitherto no species 

 of Coniferous tree exactly resembling in every respect those of the present 

 day, has occurred to me in these lower deposits. The fossil from Ushaw, 

 which Messrs Lindley and Hutton have described and figured as a true 

 Coniferous tree, under the name of Pence Withami, I am inclined to con- 

 sider as a species of Pinites, because it seems to me that their examination 

 was confined to imperfect specimens, altered and distorted, of the same 

 plant of which I have presented figures taken from a portion retaining its 

 original tissue in a state of perfect preservation, and which is unquestion- 

 ably a true Pinites, apparently the same as P. Brancllingi. My anxious 

 endeavours to discover a true and indisputable pine, have, however, been 

 crowned with success. 



In the lower half of Plate IX. are representations of a plant of that 

 family, of which the tissue is in the most perfect state of preservation, and 

 of extreme beauty. 



Fig. 1. Represents a transverse section of a fossil tree found in the up- 

 per lias, about a mile south of Whitby, by Mr Nicol. The fragment of 

 which this figure represents a face, is about eight inches long, and has been 

 split in the longitudinal direction. It has a very distinct concentric ar- 



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