Carbonised vegetables, or those which have passed into the state of Lignites, often undergo modifications which render it difficult to understand them rightly. Sometimes a portion of the organs of vegetables which have passed into the state of lignite is transformed into pyrites, or else pyrites of a globular shape is found in the middle of the tissue, and may be taken for a character of organisation. The section of certain Dicotyledonous fossil woods, in that case, may resemble Monocotyledons. Petrifaction, as in the case of silicified woods, often preserves all the tissues equally, at other times the soft tissues are altered or destroyed; the cellular tissue being replaced by amorphous chalcedony, while the ligneous and vascular tissues alone are petrified, so as to preserve their forms. In some cases the reverse takes place as to these tissues; the fibrous portions disappear, leaving cavities, while the cells are silicified. Sometimes we find the parts regularly silicified at one place, so as to retain the structure, while at another an amorphous mass of silica is found. In such cases there appear, as it were, distinct silicified woody bundles in the midst of an amorphous mass. The appearance depends, however, merely on irregular silicification or partial petrifaction. Infiltrated fossil woods, by means of chemical tests, are shown to possess portions of vegetable tissues cemented into a mass by silica. In some cases we find the vessels and cells separately silicified, without being crushed into a compact mass. In these cases, the intercellular substance not being silicified, the mass breaks down easily; whereas, when complete silicification takes place, the mass is not friable. Coniferous wood is often friable, from silicified portions being still separated from each other by vegetable tissue more or less entire. During silicification, or subsequent to it, it frequently happens that the plant has been compressed, broken, and deformed, and that fissures have been formed which have been subsequently filled with crystallised or amorphous silica. [Illustration: Fig. 7.] [Sidenote: Fig. 7. _Nicolia Owenii_ (Carr.), from the Tertiary Strata of Egypt.]