440 
a seed resembling the seed of some large gourd ; some exotic fruit, 
like a small melon ; a stone resembling that of an East- India mango ; 
a fruit somewhat resembling that of the Euonymus latifolius of 
Cluvius ; a small bean, resembling a horse-bean ; a species of ches- 
nut, like the horse-chesnut of America ; a fruit resembling a small 
Palma Cocoa ; another, seeming to be a species of foreign w^alnut ; 
and others, which seemed to resemble Myrobolans and Phaseoli. 
From the state in which these were found, and from want of 
their accordance, in many respects, with the seeds or fruits which 
they are said to resemble. Dr. Parsons, very properly, does not too 
strenuously insist on their having been those identical seeds, or 
fruits, to which their appearances approximate. Indeed he candidly 
acknowledges the difficulty of deciding with respect to them : and 
particularly mentions Dvo specimens, which he thought were figs, 
petrified when hard and green ; being then, he thought, capable of 
being impregnated with pyritical particles, which might prevent 
their perishing. These, however, he afterwards found were fossils 
rather deserving to be classed with the Fungoides : among which he 
also places another fossil which he, at first, was inclined to consider 
as a fossil fruit. 
To show what caution is necessary, in admitting as real petrifac- 
tions of fruits, many of those substances which have been so de- 
scribed by the earlier oryctologists, I can assure you that I could 
have laid before you the figures of apples, pears, plums, &c. 
which would pass with many unquestioned ; but Avhich undoubtedly 
owe their forms to mere accident. In particular, I could call ^our 
attention to a silicious stone, which not only bears the exact form 
of a pear ; but which has a regularly-formed depression, at the 
smaller end, resembling that which would have been left on the 
coming out of the stalk ; the stone, at this part, on being examined 
with a glass, appearing evidently tinged with green ; but that it has 
not owed its origin to the fruit which it so much resembles, is, how- 
