104 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
9. The method followed in these inquiries is a new method in 
physiological research, and by the employment of proper appliances, 
it may be greatly extended, not only witli regard to vision, but 
also to the other senses. 
Monday , 5 th May 1873. 
Professor KELLAND, Y.P., in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — 
1* Notice of two Fossil Trees lately uncovered in Craigleith 
Quarry, near Edinburgh. By Sir B. Christison, Bart., 
President, K.S.E. 
The late Mr H. T. M. Witham read in 1830 to this Society, and 
published three years afterwards in greater extension, an inquiry 
of much interest respecting two fossil trees found in Craigleith 
Quarry, a mile and a half from the north-west outskirts of Edin- 
burgh. The general points of this inquiry are, that trees of very 
great size lie, completely fossilised, in the very compact sandstone 
of the quarry, at a great depth below the rock surface, slightly 
inclined to the dip of the strata, with their structure so finely 
preserved in the fossilising material as to be beautifully shown 
before the microscope, and recognised as that of the Pinaceous 
Family, and of the section to which belongs the existing Araucaria. 
These trees have been generally known to fossile botanists by the 
name of Araucarioxylon Withami. An opportunity having occurred 
this year of confirming and extending the inquiries of Witham, 
it has been thought right to take advantage of it, again through 
the medium of the Eoyal Society. 
One of Witham’s fossils (No. 1) was found in 1826, the other 
(No. 2) in 1830; but his researches regarded principally the 
second. Since the latter year four similar fossils have been un- 
covered by the operations of the quarrymen. One of these (No. 3) 
was exhibited for some time to the curious in a hut constructed 
over it for concealment. Another (No. 4) was removed by the 
late Mr Ramsay of Barnton, behind whose mansion several large 
