The material which is the subject of the present note was presented to the British Museum (Natural History) in November 1923, by Captain Eric C. Palmer, of the Styrian Jade Company, Bernstein, Burgenland, Austria. Bernstein is situated 92 kilometres south of Vienna, on the present borders of Styria and Upper Austria, and 22 kilometres west of the frontier town of Guns. Previous to the Treaty of Versailles, Bernstein was in Hungary, Comitat Vas (Eisenburg). Its Hungarian name is Borostytánkő.

In 1854, Johann Cžjžek, in a paper entitled ‘Das Rosaliengebirge und der Wechsel in Niederösterreich’, had described the geology of the district, and given some account of the rocks, including a description of the occurrence at Bernstein of serpentine in the midst of an area of hornblende-schists, chlorite-schists, and gneiss.