Notice of specimen Lepidodendron with cones attached, from Corstorphine Hill, Edinburgh

Abstract

A fine specimen of Lepidodendron elegans, with cones ( Lepidestrobi ) attached,* was obtained from the quarry on the estate of Barnton, north-east end of Corstorphine Hill, of which Mr M‘Kenzie, one of our members, is lessee. The beds in which it was found form part of the Lower Carboniferous shales, of which those at Wardie are best known. A fine specimen of Sphenopteris affinis, nearly three feet in length, from the same quarry, was added lately to the Museum. The shale from this quarry is a kind of bedded slate, very hard and durable, quite impervious to wet, and partakes more of the character of a flagstone, for which purpose it is extensively used. The great difficulty with our shale fossils hitherto is their extreme fissility and frangibility, rendering them easily split up, and breaking into fragments on the slightest touch, although an admirable medium otherwise for preserving the delicate tissues and graceful forms of plants. The peculiar character, however, of the Barnton shale is that in it we find the specimens quite entire, although their texture is coarser and less delicately developed.