jan. — mar. 1857.] Supposed Aerolite in a tree. 849 



" Since the Battersea phenomenon was announced, Professor 

 Henslow, to whom I had applied, wrote to me saying, that he pos- 

 sessed a remarkable example of a stone which was found imbed- 

 ded in the heart of a tree, in sawing it up in Plymouth Dockyard ; 

 and he has obligingly sent up the specimen, which is now also ex- 

 hibited. In this case, judging from the mineral character of the 

 rock, and its being slightly magnetic, Professor Henslow supposed 

 that it was perhaps a volcanic bomb. On referring it to Dr. Shep- 

 ard, that gentleman entertains the opinion that it is also a mete- 

 orite, and states that it resembles certain meteoric stones with 

 which he is acquainted ; suspicions of which had also been enter- 

 tained by Professor Henslow. From the examination of a minute 

 fragment which I detached from this stone, it appears to be com- 

 posed of a base of felspathic matter, with minute crystals of felspar 

 and of magnetic iron pyrites. Externally it has a trachytic aspect, 

 though, when fractured, it more resembles, in the opinion of Mr. 

 Warington Smyth, a pale Cornish elvan or porphyry than any other 

 British rock with which it can be compared. Whatever may have 

 been the origin of this stone, which is of the size of a child's head, 

 it is essentially different from the metalliferous mass from Bat- 

 tersea, to which attention has been specially invited, and its posi- 

 tion in the heart of an oak is equally remarkable. Like the Bat- 

 tersea specimen, the segment of wood from Plymouth Dockyard is 

 characterized by an interior bark which folds round the sinuosities 

 of the included stone. 



" In respect to the envelopment of manufactured materials in 

 trees, my friend, Mr. H. Brooke, the distinguished mineralogist, 

 tells me that he perfectly remembers the case of an iron chain 

 which had been enclosed in the heart of a tree, the wood of which 

 was sound around the whole of the included metallic body. This 

 specimen was to be seen some years ago in the British Museum. 

 Again, he informs me that at Stoke Nevvington he recollects to have 

 seen a tree, the trunk of which had grown over and completely en- 

 closed a scythe, except on the sides where its ends protruded*. 



* Many other examples of extraneous bodies found enclosed in the heart of trees 

 have been brought to my notice since this account was written. The most curious 

 of these is perhaps that of an image of the Virgin, which having been placed in a 

 niche had become imbedded by the growth of the tree around it. 



