346 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. Cuap. X. 
met with; polished slices of such specimens are richly figured 
by the sections of the inclosed Foraminifera. 
The Nummulitic limestones are of the Eocene or ancient. 
Tertiary epoch, as the labours of Sir Roderick Murchison in 
the Alps, Apennines, and Carpathians first established: Num-_ 
mulites are unknown in the Secondary formations.* _ 
OrpiTorpEs.—The fossil bodies thus named are disciform, 
like the Nummulites; and one species, which forms the con- — 
stituent substance of ranges of limestone mountains, 300 
feet high, near Suggsville, in North America, was first de- 
scribed by my lamented friend, the late Dr. Morton, of Phil- 
adelphia, as WV. Mantelli, in his work on the Cretaceous — 
Fossils of the United States. & 
The discovery that the Nummulitic deposits of the Old 
World were of the tertiary period, directed attention to their 
supposed geological equivalents in America ; and on a careful 
examination of their fossils, the rocks om to be tertiary, — 
and the shells true Foraminifera allied to the N ummulites, 
but generically distinct.t A reference to Dr. Carpenter's 
memoir, previously cited, is necessary to comprehend the 
complicated structure of these fossils. { ¢ 
SIDEROLINA, or Siderolites, is a genus of Foraminifera, 
which may be described as Nummulites, in which the turns_ 
of the spire are intercepted by elongated appendages, that 
project beyond the periphery of the disk, and produce a 
stellated figure. These fossils abound in the cretaceous strata 
of Maestricht. & 
Fusutiva.—The shell is fusiform, being elongated trans- 
versely to the axis; the cells are divided internally by con- 
strictions. Only one species is known, (Lf. cylindrica,) and. 
this is confined to the Carboniferous formation; it is the 
most ancient or earliest type of the class, wer - to the 
present state of our knowledge. 
3 
* Geol. Journal, vol. v. + Manual of Geology, p. 208. 
t Geol. Journal, vol. vi. 
