ACCOUNT OF A FOSSIL ZOOPHYTE, ETC. 303 



remains of the Elephant, Rhinoceros, Horse, and Deer, and fragments of eeveral 

 bones of other Mammalia. 



This Rag-stone bassetts out above the Weald Clay, about four miles to the 

 south-east of the town, and thus a great variety of formations may be visited 

 with great ease and convenience, offering such facilities for geological research 

 as are not often to be met with. 



Alcyonia monilia (Plate 1, Fig. 1) is furnished with a cylindrical stem, 

 attached by ramose fibres to the sands on which it grew. It has several lobes 

 upon the stem, at irregular distances, and generally terminates in an expanded 

 head, often of considerable size, and in shape resembling the Flint-nodules of the 

 Chalk. The stem and lobes have a rough uneven surface, covered with papillae. 

 A spinous or tuberous structure has been detected in but few specimens. The 

 peculiarity of this zoophyte consists in the beaded tentacula, proceeding from the 

 stem, lobes, and head, which are sometimes attenuated into cylindrical threads. 

 From their great variety of shape and size, they had probably considerable 

 powers of extension and contraction. The large expanded head contains, in 

 some instances, part of the stem, lobes, and beaded tentacula, folded within it, 

 and I conjecture, that in some specimens the whole economy of the zoophyte is 

 withdrawn within it, in a similar manner to that of the recent Actineae. In 

 such cases, the specimens appear externally like variously-shaped nodules, but 

 en being broken, the tentacula, stem, and lobes may sometimes be seen within. 



This zoophyte is evidently analogous to the Polypi, discovered by Mr. Web- 

 ster, in the Green-sand of the Isle-of- Wight, and closely assimilates with the 

 Polypothecia from the neighbourhood of Warminster, described by Miss Bennett ; 

 but Mr. Webster mentions only the simple lobated specimens " in which from 

 two to five or six lobes, closely united together, are found." 



This is the common appearance, and it is only by a large assortment of speci- 

 mens that the varieties of shape and figure, described above, can be connected 

 so as to justify the conclusion that all belong to the same class.- Mr. Webster, 

 who inspected some specimens in my collection, instantly recognized the similarity 

 of the simple lobated stem with the Isle-of- Wight zoophyte, but the tentaculum, 

 he said, was a new discovery, and expressed much interest in it, particularly in 

 the folding of the lobes, stem, &c, in the superior head. 



I find them principally in the upper strata of the Rag-stone, which is arranged 

 in alternate layers of arenaceous Lime-stone and a siliceous coarse Sand; the 

 fossil occurs in various shapes and states of preservation, depending on the 

 stratum in which it is imbedded. The Lime-stone contains the most clearly- 

 defined specimens, as the stem is seldom well preserved in the Sand, although the 

 large heads are frequently procured from it by their possessing a great portion 



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