ILLUSTRATED BY FIGURES. 33 
the grindstone bed, which is the same stratum as that in which the great 
Wideopen tree (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.) occurred. The tree of which this figure 
represents a part, was described by Mr Wi1NcH in a letter to the Geologi- 
cal Society, dated 7th October 1817. The trunk was 28 or 30 feet long, 
compressed and broken, lying in the regular dip of the sandstone, declining 
south. Where small interstices occurred, crystals of quartz were formed. 
It was otherwise fine-grained in texture, and in structure somewhat lamel- 
lar, apparently from the fibre of the wood. The general colour was pale 
brown, but parts of it were tinged black, probably by carbonaceous matter ; 
the bark or outer part was converted into coal. The portion here represented 
is ore of the most regular, and exhibits an arrangement similar to Figs. 1, 
and 2. 
Fig. 8. Represents another portion of the same, exhibiting the ordinary 
appearance of the fossil, it being greatly distorted, and in some places inter- 
sected by earthy and carbonaceous veins. ‘This so much resembles Fig. 2. 
and the texture of the fossil generally is so like that of the Wideopen tree, 
that the two very probably belong to the same species. 
A specimen sent to me by Mr Puiuuips of York, and which was found 
in the West Riding coal-field, possesses a texture so much resembling that 
of the fossil plants from the Newcastle district, that I have thought it un- 
necessary to present a figure of it. 
FOSSIL VEGETABLES OF THE LIAS. 
Fig. 1. Transverse section of a branch or trunk of a fossil tree found in 
the upper lias, about a mile south of Whitby, by Mr Nicox. The fragment 
of which this figure represents a face, is about 8 inches long, and has been 
split in the longitudinal direction. It has a very distinct concentric arrange- 
ment, and presents the marks of two branches or twigs. The exterior is ir- 
regularly and longitudinally striated, and was covered by a layer of coaly 
matter. The interior is intersected by veins of clayey matter, calcareous 
spar, and iron-pyrites. Some of the concentric layers are partially separated 
E 
