the Upper Old Red to which they refer, in an
interesting sketch of the geology of Roxburgshire by the Rev. James
Duncan, which forms part of a recent publication devoted to the history
and antiquities of the shire. "In the red quarry of Denholm Hill there
occurs," says Mr. Duncan, "a stratum of soft yellowish sandstone, which
contains impressions of an apparent fucoid in considerable quantity. One
or several linear stems diverge from a point, and throw off at acute
angles, as they grow upwards, branches or leaves very similar to the
stem, which are in turn subdivided into others. The width of the stalks
is generally about a quarter of an inch, the length often a foot. The
color is brown, blackish-brown, or grayish. The same plant also occurs
in the whitestone quarry [an overlying bed] in the form of Carbonaceous
impressions. There can be little doubt that it is a fucoid. The general
mode of growth greatly resembles that of certain seaweeds; and in some
specimens we have seen the branches dilated a little at the extremities,
like those of such of the living fuci as expand in order to afford space
for the fructification. It is deserving of remark, that the plant is
seldom observed lying horizontally on the rock in a direction parallel
to its stratification, but rising up through the layers, so as only to
be seen when the stone is broken across; as if it had been standing
erect, or kept buoyant in water, while the stony matter to which it owes
its preservation was deposited around it." Mr. Duncan, after next
referring to the remains of what he deems a land plant, derived from the
same deposit, and which, though sadly mutilated, presents not a little
of the appearance of the naked framework of a frond of Cyclopterus
Hibernicus divested of the leaflets, goes on to describe the apparent
calamite of the formation. "The best preserved vegetable remain yet
found in Denholm Hill quarry," he says, "is the radical portion of what
we cannot hesitate to call a species of calamite. The lower part is
regularly and beautifully rounded, bulging and prominent, nearly four
inches in diameter. About an inch from the bottom it contracts somewhat
suddenly in two separate stages, and, from the uppermost sends up a stem
about an inch in diameter, and nearly of the same length, where it is
broken across. At the origin of this stem the small longitudinal ridges
are distinctly marked; and the whole outline of the figure, though
converted into stone