. The testimony of the rocks; . y Dr. Fleming,—theoriginal discoverer, let me add, of fossils both in thoseUpper and Middle Old Red Sandstone deposits that liein Scotland to the south of the Grampians. These * Frogspawn is full of eyes [that is, black eye-like points], and every«ye is a tadpole. 448 ON THE LESS KNOWN organisms, ^ye find him saying, in a paper published inCheeks Edinbm-gh Journal (1831), occur in theform of circular flat patches, not equalling an inch indiameter, and composed of numerous smaller contiguouspieces. They are not unlike what might be expected toresult from a compre
. The testimony of the rocks; . y Dr. Fleming,—theoriginal discoverer, let me add, of fossils both in thoseUpper and Middle Old Red Sandstone deposits that liein Scotland to the south of the Grampians. These * Frogspawn is full of eyes [that is, black eye-like points], and every«ye is a tadpole. 448 ON THE LESS KNOWN organisms, ^ye find him saying, in a paper published inCheeks Edinbm-gh Journal (1831), occur in theform of circular flat patches, not equalling an inch indiameter, and composed of numerous smaller contiguouspieces. They are not unlike what might be expected toresult from a compressed berry, such as the bramble orthe rasp. As, however, they are found adjacent to thenarrow leaves of gramineous [looking] vegetables, andchiefly in clay slate, originally lacustrine silt, it is probablethat they constituted the conglobate panicles of extinctspecies of the genus Junicus or Sparzanium. Fromspecimens subsequently found by Dr. Fleming, and onwhich he has erected his species JParka decipiens, it seema Fig PARKA DECIPIENS. evident that the nearly circular bodies (which in all thebetter preserved instances circumscribe the small poly-gonal ones) were set in receptacles somewhat resemblingthe receptacle or calyx of the strawberry or rasp. Judg-ing from one of the specimens, this calyx appears to haveconsisted of five pieces, which united in a central stem,and were traversed by broad irregularly diverging the spawn-like patches of Carmylie appear to besimply ill preserv^ed specimens of this fruit, whatever itstrue character, in which the minute circular portions,divested of the receptacle and stem, had been thrown FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. 449 into irregular forms by the joint agency of pressure anddecay. Tlie great abundance of these organisms,—for soabundant are they, that visitors to the Carmylie quarriesfind they can carry away with them as many specimensas they please,—may be regarded as of itself indicativeof a vegetable origin.* It is
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