X.—Notice of Fossil Trees recently Discovered in Craigleith Quarry, near 
Edinburgh. By Sir Rospert Curistison, Bart., Honorary Vice-President, 
R.S.E. (Plate XIII.) 
(Read May 5, 1873, and January 19, 1874.) 
In February 1831 the late Mr Wiruam read to the Royal Society of Edin 
burgh, a paper of much interest on two fossil trees of great size which had 
been brought to light, the one in 1826, and the other in 1830, during the 
excavations carried on in Craigleith sandstone quarry, in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of our city. In March of the same year this paper, with the addition 
of several chemical analyses of the fossils, was read also before the Natural 
History Society of Northumberland. In 1833 he included his observations on 
these fossils in a separate and more comprehensive treatise on ‘‘ The Internal 
Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic Deposits 
of Great Britain.” The main purpose of Mr Wirnawm’s researches—in addition 
to an accurate description and delineation of natural objects previously little 
investigated—was to show that fossil vegetables in the oolitic and carboniferous 
formations were not, as had been generally supposed prior to his researches, 
always ferns, tree-ferns, lycopodiums, and other acrogenous plants, but on 
the contrary many of them woody exogenous trees, showing longitudinal 
ligneous bundles, transverse medullary rays, concentric annual layers, and other 
characters belonging to the intimate organisation of our existing forest trees. 
Mr WirnHamM even went so far as to identify the structure of the Craigleith 
fossils with that of our modern pines, and to assign them to two separate 
species. His discoveries have been so far acknowledged by subsequent 
authorities, that the fossils are now generally known by the name of Araucari- 
oxylon Withami. This name recognises their alliance with the now familiar 
Araucarias ; but some inquirers are rather disposed to associate them with the 
_ yew tribe. 
The recent disclosure in the same locality of two very perfect fossil trees, 
of still greater magnitude than those examined by Mr Wirua\, is an incident 
‘which seems to deserve being also recorded. I have therefore ventured to sub- 
mit the following account of them to the Royal Society; and I shall take 
advantage of the opportunity to give a short historical notice of all the great 
_ vegetable fossils which can be traced as having been found in the remarkable 
quarry of Craigleith during the last fifty-five years. 
VOL. XXVII. PART II. 3G 
