18 REMARKS ON THE FOSSIL VEGETABLES 
At the bridge of the Whitadder, one mile west of Chirnside, a thick 
series of mountain limestone-measures dips rapidly to the east, forming a 
bold cliff, capped on the north side of the road by a thin detached bed, much 
resembling new red sandstone. 
Many other remarks might here be made, but I reserve them for a fu- 
ture paper upon the red sandstones of Berwickshire. 
The great abundance of these fossil plants in the above-named stratum, 
lying in a,state of much confusion, must be matter of surprise to those who 
have paid any attention to the ancient vegetation of the coal-fields in the 
north of England and Scotland. In all these fields, it is well known, the 
vascular cryptogamic plants appear greatly to prevail; and we were but oc- 
casionally amused by some undescribed recumbent fossil, whose class, genus, 
or species generally occasioned much comment, and not a little hesitation. 
In this position, amongst the members of the mountain limestone se- 
ries, however, we have every reason to believe in a deposit of these fossil 
plants, of unknown extent, all apparently of the same class, and differing 
altogether from the vascular cryptogamic plants. 
To what class are we to refer these ancient remains of a former world ? 
They cannot be vascular cryptogamic plants, as they contain decided woody 
texture from the centre of the stem. ‘They cannot be monocotyledonous, 
the pith not forming the greater part of the stem, and the woody parts not 
being composed of fasciculi, which are disseminated throughout the pithy 
texture of plants of that kind. They having in my opinion most decided 
medullary rays, it would appear to me they must be placed amongst the 
gymnospermous phanerogamic plants, no true dicotyledones having yet been 
discovered, either in the coal-field or the mountain limestone group, although 
the Conifer, to which these plants belong, are by most botanists referred 
to the class of Dicotyledones. As such, therefore, after repeated and most 
minute microscopic examinations and comparisons, not only with fossil but 
with recent plants, I do not hesitate to consider these numerous fossil vege- 
table remains. 
The contorted and flattened shape of many of these ancient stems is 
