A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."

by Gideon Algernon Mantell

PLATE I.

(Plates I. to IX. inclusive are from Parkinson's Organic Remains.)

Fossil Woods and Leaves.

Fig. 1. Fossil coniferous wood, from a bed of clay at Blackwall. This wood is simply bituminized, and has undergone no other mineral transmutation; it is in the usual condition of wood in peat-bogs.

Fig. 2. A piece of bituminous wood, containing Mellite, or Honey-stone (honigstein of Werner), the yellow crystallized substance in the middle of the specimen. It is a fossil resin, allied to amber: from Thuringia.

Fig. 3. Carbonized coniferous wood, from the so-called "Bovey Coal" formation of Devonshire.

Fig, 4. A piece of calcareous wood, showing very distinctly the ligneous structure on the surface.

Fig. 5. Lignite, or carbonized wood, in clay; the cracks or fissures in the wood are filled up with white calcareous spar. Specimens of this kind are common in many argillaceous strata, as well as in limestone.

Fig. 6. A fragment of shale, covered with the imprints of the leaf-stalks that have been shed. It is a species of Lepidodendron. See description of [Plate XXVI].