Notes on Prototaxites and Pachytheca , discovered by Dr. Hicks in the Denbighshire Grits of Coewen, N. Wales

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Abstract
Specimens of the first-mentioned fossil were kindly sent to me by Dr. Hicks, at my request, but unfortunately arrived when I was at my summer residence at Little Metis. Though without the means of examining them microscopically, I ventured to write, after studying them with a good pocket-lens, that they resembled Prototaxites , and could not be referred to Algae. The latter conclusion might appear rash; but there are, to the practised eye, indications in specimens of this kind which can scarcely deceive. The fibrous and highly carbonaceous nature of the darker specimens, and the silky and incoherent texture of the lighter-coloured ones, are characters never found in any fossil plants except those having durable woody tissues. Further, the occurrence of the material in angular fragments and in a condition approaching to that of the mineral charcoal of the Coal-measures, proves subaerial decay, little likely to have occurred in the case of aquatic plants. From the state of preservation of the specimens, I also inferred that, if really of the nature of Prototaxites , they might throw some additional light on its structure, as the specimens previously studied had been from entire trunks in a silicified state.
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