On supposed Vegetable Remains in Chalk. 313 



do from those of C cyathus, could have been described by Dr 

 Fleming as belonging to the last-mentioned zoophyte. In his 

 " History of British Animals," published in 1828, Dr Fleming 

 has repeated the record of the species described in the Memoirs, 

 but without the reference to Lamarck. The only CaryophylRa 

 recorded in these publications is CaryophylUa, or, as Dr Flem- 

 ing writes it in the latter work, Caryophyllea Cyathus ; and, in 

 both places, Madrepora cyathus of Solander and Ellis is given 

 as the synonym. Madrepora Cyathus is Caryophyllia Cyathus 

 of Lamarck's " Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres,'" — of 

 Leach, who has figured and described it as an inhabitant of the 

 Mediterranean in the " Zoological Miscellany," (Lond. 1814, 

 vol. i.), and has there referred to Lamarck's Systeme for the 

 species, and to Dr Fleming, after Lamarck, for the genus, — and 

 again, of the " Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres." 

 This is the only Caryophyllia Cyathus, as far as my informa- 

 tion goes, admitted by zoologists in general ; and this is certainly 

 not the indigenous species described by me in the Zoological 

 Journal for 1828. If Dr Fleming has described the latter, 

 (C Smithii) under the title of C. Cyathus, he must pardon me 

 for suggesting that he has confounded two very different spe- 

 cies ; but I cannot regret the " mistake" which, according to his 

 assertion, I appear to have made, when I supposed him inca- 

 pable of so doing. 



On supposed Vegetable Remains in Chalk. By Gideon Man- 

 tell, Esq. F. R. S. &c. In a Letter to the Editor. 



Sib, 

 L HE author of the interesting " Remarks on the Ancient Flora 

 of the Earth," which appeared in the last Number of your Jour- 

 nal, having stated, upon the authority of the " Illustrations of 

 the Geology of Sussex," that the remains of leaves and fruits of 

 coniferous plants occur in the chalk at Hornsey, &c. I beg leave 

 to offer a few observations in explanation. It is true, that, in the 

 pa.ssage referred to, (Geology of Sussex, page 103), mention is 

 made that the bodies in question (the supposed fossil Juli of 

 Cherry Hinton), bear a distant resemblance to the cones of the 

 larch, and that Professor Hailstone had declared their vegetable 



