105 
the tree, but as hard as a bone, and in some as black as a coal. 
Similar to the Bovey coal, its veins, instead of running straight, like 
the fibres of wood, were undulated and irregular, taking a variety of 
forms, and were only superficial ; for, upon taking off one of the 
thin laminae of which this fossil was composed, the veins underneath 
appeared in a different direction. This fossil, when first taken out 
of the earth, burnt like a bone, and consumed slowly in the fire, 
with a considerable smoke and disagreeable smell ; but if dried, 
before it was burnt, the smell was more pleasing. Many of the 
pieces, he observes, were sprinkled with pyrites; and there exude 
from some parts of it, a white bituminous substance, like rosin. 
Stelluti is convinced, that this ligniform matter is not of vegetable 
origin, but supposes it to be generated from a cretaceous earth, trans- 
forming itself into wood, by the assistance of sulphurous water, 
minerals, and subterraneous heat. A thick smoke, and sometimes 
even flames, escape from it, particularly in rainy weather. 
Gassendus, in his Life of the illustrious Peireskius*, describes the 
fossil wood of Aqua Sparta, which had been just discovered. There 
were only found portions resembling trunks, but no vestiges of 
branches, knot, or roots ; which yielded an argument, he says, that 
woods might be generated and concreted in this form, and not, 
according to the vulgar, derived from wood overthrown and become 
petrified. 
Professor Hollman, of Gottingen, presented to the Royal Society 
a paper, which appeared in the second part of the fifty-first volume 
of the Society’s Transactions, with the title of Montium quorundam 
prcealtorum, magna Ligni Copia quasi infarctorum, brevis Desc7-ip- 
tio ; and in 17S4 he republished it with some additions, at Gottingen, 
under the title of Loci memoi'uhilis, in quo ingens Ligni fossilis 
Copia repeidtur JDescriptio. 
* Vita illustris Peireskii, lib. v. 1637. 
VOL. I. 
