Figs. 1-7, represent different sections and parts of some remarkably beautiful and interesting silicified stems of an extinct tribe of plants, related to the arborescent ferns, and which are found in considerable abundance at Chemnitz, near Hillersdorf, in Saxony. The name of Psaronius is given to the genus by M. Cotta.
Figs. 1, 2, 5, 7, are P. helmintholithes; figs. 3, 6, P. asterolithes; figs. 5, 6, 7, are enlarged figures of the transverse sections of some of the vessels forming the vascular tissue.
From the stellular figure produced by transverse sections of the vessels, this fossil wood has received the name of "Staarenstein," or Starry-stone. In the time of Mr. Parkinson, the tubes now known to be the vessels of the vascular tissue, were supposed to have been produced by some boring or parasitical animals.
Fig. 4. Transverse section of a stem of calcareous wood from the Bath oolite.
Figs. 8, & 9. Calcareous fossil wood; the cylindrical cavities have been formed by the depredations of the ligniverous boring mollusk, the Teredo, and are now filled with translucent calcareous spar. This kind of fossil was called "Lapis syringoides" by the early collectors.
Fig. 10. Silicified wood; the perforations are supposed to have been occasioned by the depredations of boring mollusca: the cavities are filled with a white pellucid chalcedony.
Plate IX.
