438 
Bajer describes several stones, bearing a near resemblance to 
fruits ; such as olive, almond, plum, and cherry-stones, apples, 
pears &c. But that these are accidentally figured stones, not 
deriving their forms from the fruits they resemble, is most probable, 
from the manner in which they are spoken of, he considering them 
himself rather as sports of nature. Among these, is one said to 
appear like a pod of capsicum ; whilst another is said exactly to 
resemble a musk-pear, a fragment of a shell completely supplying 
the place of a stalk. 
Scheuchzer describes a petrified nutmeg, as being a white flint 
of a compressed cylindrical form, marked with stricB passing from 
one end to the other, and bearing a strong resemblance to the 
nutmegf . The figure, however, certainly more resembles that of a 
coralloid than of a nutmeg. He also figures, in Fig. 89 of the 
same work, a pyritous fossil fruit of a very curious structure, which 
is sulcated from the apex to the base, and marked with small pro- 
jecting joints along its lower edge, so as to give it somewhat of the 
appearance of a coronet. 
Helwing mentions a petrified walnut, in such a manner, as to lead 
to the supposition that its resemblance to the fruit itself must have 
been very close. The petrifaction of an almond, mentioned by this 
author, does not seem to have approached the fruit very nearly in 
similitude. He also describes a black stone as being very like to a 
small smooth bean:j;. But when it is considered, that at this period 
the notions entertained respecting the petrifaction of vegetable sub- 
stances were so incorrect, that the petrified spines of the echinus, 
or sea-urchin, were referred to the vegetable kingdom ; and that 
the accidental forms of pyrites, as well as of argillaceous, and 
# Oryctographia Norica, p. 45. 
\ Lithographia Helvetia, p. 42, Fig. 57. 
I Lithographia Angerburgica, p. 37. 
