Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 20.djvu/547

 XXIX. Some account of an undescribed Fossil Fruit. By, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S, V.P.L.S.

Read June 15th, 1847.

HE following imperfect account of a singularly beautiful and instructive silicified Fossil has been hastily drawn up, to supply in some measure the possible want of any other memoir for the present Meeting.

The remarks which I am enabled to make, from detached memoranda, on so short a notice, will principally serve to explain the accompanying drawings, which I have carefully superintended, and which exhibit a very satisfactory microscopic analysis of its structure, and do great credit to the artistical talent of Mr. George Sowerby, jun.

The only specimen of this fossil known to exist was brought to London in 1843 by M. Roussell, an intelligent dealer in objects of natural history. His account of it was, that it had been in the possession of Baron Roget, an amateur collector in Paris, for about thirty years; that after his death it was brought to public sale with the rest of his collection, but no offer being made nearly equal to the sum he paid for it, which was 600 francs, it was bought in. It was purchased here from M. Roussell jointly by the British Museum, the Marquis of Northampton, and myself, for nearly 30l. It seems to have entirely escaped the notice of the naturalists of Paris. Nothing else is known of its history, but from its obvious analogy in structure and in its mineral condition with Lepidostrobus, it may be conjectured to belong to the same geological formation.

The specimen is evidently the upper half of a Strobilus very gradually tapering towards the top. As brought to England it was not quite two inches in length; but a transverse slice, probably of no great thickness, had been removed from it in Paris: the transverse diameter of the lower slices somewhat exceeded the length of the specimen; its surface, which was