in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 177 



now directed to the daily disclosures of the quarry, we may ex- 

 pect that, in the course of time, a list of the various genera and 

 species of plants discovered in this interesting locality will be 

 perfected. 



NOTES TO SECTION III. 



Fossil Botany is a subject of inquiry so beset with difficulties, as to demand an 

 almost exclusive attention to it by the naturalist, if he would pursue it with success 

 For this reason, I should be unwilling to commit myself by any attempts to treat of 

 the Fossil Flora of Burdiehouse more in detail , nor can such attempts be reasonably 

 expected in a memoir so limited as this must necessarily be. Specimens of the more 

 important plants, among which are some new ones already discovered, have been 

 transmitted, not only from the collection made by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 but likewise from my own cabinet, to Messrs Lindley and Hutton, to be described 

 by them in their important work exclusively devoted to the Fossil Flora of Great 

 Britain. Other specimens, though from my own private collection only, have been 

 sent to M. Adolphe Brongniart, whose acquaintance I had many years ago the hap- 

 piness of forming in Edinburgh, while he was prosecuting his important researches 

 in Fossil Botany: and thus every opportunity has been afforded for having proper 

 justice rendered to the plants of more peculiar interest which have already turned 

 up ; and, in reference to future disclosures from the quarry, other similar transmis- 

 sions are meditated. 



Hitherto, two plants only from the vegetable remains of Burdiehouse have been 

 noticed, which were forwarded to Professor Lindley and Mr Hutton, for their 

 Fossil Flora, by their zealous and very intelligent correspondent Mr Witham. In 

 the botanical description given of the Sphenopteris bifida, it is incidentally stated, 

 (see vol. i. of the work, p. 147), that " the plant was communicated by Mr Witham, 

 from the mountain limestone of the lime-quarries of Burdiehouse, near Edinburgh ;" 

 and, upon another occasion, a similar acknowledgment is rendered. 



In the absence of any geological description whatever having been hitherto pub- 

 lished of this limestone, the very name of Burdiehouse would have been unrecorded, 

 if it had not been for this incidental circumstance. 



I am given to understand, that it is intended to devote the whole of a very early 

 number of the British Flora to an elucidation of the plants of Burdiehouse. 



In reference to this anticipation, as well as to the chief object of this memoir, 

 which is to illustrate the fresh-water character of the limestone of Burdiehouse, one 

 plate only has been dedicated to its Fossil Flora. 



Fig. 1. of Plate VI. is the Sphenopteris bifida. 



Fig. 2. is a plant, unfortunately not in the most perfect state, which I am in- 

 clined to consider as an undescribed Sphenopteris. But, as I agree with 

 Mr Hctton of Newcastle, in the possibility that the specimen may be 

 VOL. XIII. PART I. Z 



