55 
influenced by the predominant opinion of that period, that nature 
amused herself by modelling, in stone, imitations of the forms of 
organic bodies ; he therefore endeavoured to establish a mode of 
distinguishing in which of these classes the stony substances, bearing 
a vegetable form, are to be arranged. As nature, he says, generates 
stones, resembling trees, it must be diligently observed whether 
they possess the bark, pith, &c. since if these are not discoverable, 
it may be concluded, that they are not timnks of trees converted 
to stone, but that nature has formed those stones, to resemble 
the trunks of trees. Thus he says, respecting the piece of timber 
found by Jovianus Pontanus, in the promontory of Pausilypus, 
in consequence of a part of the rock being broken off by the 
violence of the storm, we cannot determine, as these particulars 
are not explained, whether it was a stone which only bore the 
form of a piece of wood, or whether it was actually wood, con- 
verted into stone. 
Thus also Kircher, speaking of petrified woods, observes, there 
are some which formerly have been wood, and have been converted 
into stone by the long course of time, or by the influence of the 
lapidific power. Others there are, which cannot be said to derive 
their origin from a vegetable nature ; except in some very remote 
way, but were thus formed from the firsts. 
De Boot relates, that near Bruges in Flanders, upon digging, to 
the depth even of 50 feet, whole forests were found ; the leaves, and 
the trunks being so little altered, that the different species of the 
trees might be ascertained ; and even the different series of leaves, 
which had fallen yearly, might also be distinguishedf . Schoockius 
also observes, that large trunks of fossil trees are dug up in different 
parts of Germany, particularly in Poland ; near Bois-le-duc, in the 
* De Natura Fossilium, lib. vii. p. 324. Basil, mdlviii. Kircheri Mund. Subt. lib. viii. 
cap. 6. 
f Gemmarurt) & Lapidum Historia, lib. ii. cap. 158'. 
