202 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. Cusp, Wa 
plants, and most of them to species which still grow in — 
Italy. In some examples the substance of the leaves is 
changed into carbon, and the structure well preserved ; but, 
in general, sharp imprints on the stone are the only traces of 
the originals. They are found in a gypseous marl, of a 
cream colour; and, from their perfect state, it is inferred 
that they were enveloped in the soft matrix immediately — 
after their fall, and preserved by the rapid crystallization of 
the gypsum. Two specimens from my cabinet are figured in 
Plate ITT. figs. 4 and 8 ; and outlines of a few other examples, 
in Lign. 68. 
CarpouitHEes (/ossil Fruits).—In the description of the 
fossil fruits from the Isle of Sheppey, several kinds of dico- 
tyledons were included. Many species also abound in the 
lignites of Germany, France, and Italy ; in those near Frank- 
fort, seed-vessels of the Maple, Elm, Hornbeam, Birch, Wil- 
low, and Walnut, &c. In the environs of Turin, fruits of 
a species of Walnut (Juglans, Lign. 67), occur in the newer 
tertiary deposits, and are called Zwrin-nuts ; the ligneous 
envelope has perished, but the form of its surface, and of the 
inclosed kernel, is preserved in calcareous spar. These nuts 
differ, both in the pericarp and kernel, from the living species : 
the lobes are simple (Lign. 67, jig. 4°”), and not subdivided © 
as in the common walnut ; a species has been discovered at 
Lons-le-Saulnier, in which the lobes are mamillated. 
Two kinds of fruits belonging to plants of the order Ra- 
nunculacee, and related to Thalictrum (Meadow-rue), have 
been found in the eocene deposits of France and England ; 
one in the Paris basin, (mewliére du terrain @eau douce supé- 
rieur,) by M. Alexandre Brongniart, and the other in the 
Isle of Wight, by Mr. Webster. In the specimen from the — 
last-named locality the pericarp is carbonized, and its cavity 
filled with clay. Figures of these seed-vessels are given in 
Lign. 67, figs. 1, 2. 
CARPOLITHES SMITHIZ.—I would notice in this place some 
Nea Fi 
Saniitet Riga year adn toy peice, ae 
Se fa Ri aor eh ate 
