32 OBSERVATIONS ON FOSSIL VEGETABLES, 
used for grindstones, as well as for glass-houses and iron-furnaces, the stone 
being of a loosely aggregated texture, porous, and not liable to crack under 
the action of heat. The length of this fossil was 72 feet. It had no 
branches, but was rather abundantly marked with knots, indicating. the 
places at which branches had shot out. Its distance from the surface was 
40 feet, of which 10 were clay, the rest sandstone. 
Fig. 1. Represents a portion of a transverse slice, highly magnified, from 
one of the most regular parts. This fossil exhibits a tendency to the con- 
centric arrangement, but the limits of the layers are not distinguishable. 
Fig. 2. A portion of the same: the appearance here presented is that 
generally exhibited by the mass. The dark reticulations evidently form no 
part of the regular texture, the direction of the series of cells being more or 
less changed by them. 
Fig. 3. Representation of a portion of one of the more regular parts, in- 
tersected by a vein of earthy matter. 
Fig. 4. From a more confused portion, but exhibiting the same general 
arrangement. The distortions produced by the introduction of foreign mat- 
ter, or the partial decay and alteration of the texture, are here distinctly 
seen. 
Fig. 5. This represents a portion of a transverse slice of a fossil vege- 
table, 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 also presents an indistinct appearance of 
concentric layers. The terminal line of one of these layers is represented in 
the figure. The cells of the woody texture are disposed in very regular se- 
ries. The dark lines are apparently medullary rays. 
Fig. 6. The portion of the same fossil here represented, is that border- 
ing upon an irregular vein of carbonaceous or earthy matter. The dark 
transverse lines in this and the preceding figure, are not truly the lines of 
separation of concentric layers, although some of them may occupy the space 
formed by the disruption of two of these layers. 
Fig. 7. Representation of a portion of a fossil tree found at High 
Heworth, near Gateshead, in the county of Durham. It was met with in 
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