XV. Description of a Vegetable Impression found in the Quarry of Craigleith

Extract

I some time ago had the honour to present to the Royal Society, a specimen of a very singular fossil which had been found in the freestone quarry of Craigleith, near this city. It presented the appearance so commonly met with in the sandstone of the coal-formation,—an impression of what has always been considered as the bark of a vegetable connected with the Palm-tribe; but it differed from any thing I had ever before seen of the kind, by having circular marks ranged in a line along the surface, being apparently the impressions of flowers or fruit. As neither of these grow directly from the stem of any plant now known, except among the Cactus genus, this impression might have been referred to it, had not the regularity of distance between these supposed flowers, pointed out the improbability; and it consequently must be referred to some one, the prototype of which is no longer known.

The size of the specimen, of which the annexed engraving is a very exact representation, is twenty-one inches in length, and about fourteen broad; the widest part of the impression measures four inches, and the diameter of the circles a little more than three.