26 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. I. 



The case, A, contains several species of Algse and Fuci, 

 and many fossil plants belonging to a higher class, but 

 whose natural affinities are not accurately determined. Much 

 of the space is occupied by fossil ferns, and specimens of 

 a common and elegant tribe of coal-plants (named Aster o- 

 phyllites, Annular ia, &c.), whose verticillate foliage is too 

 remarkable to escape notice, and is often seen on the slabs of 

 coal-shale associated with ferns. 



Fucoides. Of fossil fuci there are specimens from Big- 

 nor, in Sussex, of a species peculiar to the firestone of the chalk 

 formation, the Fucoides (Chondrites) Targionii ; and an 

 elegant species named Fucoides arcuatus. With the fucoides 

 are specimens of fossil algse, labelled Spherococcites, which are 

 sea-weeds with thick membranous and coriaceous fronds, 

 divided into digitated lobes, wide or narrow, often irregular 

 and elongated, without nervures, and with a smooth surface, 

 bearing irregular tubercles ; from the Oolite of Solenhofen. 



On the shelves there are pieces of ironstone with vestiges 

 of carbonized vegetables, from the Wealden (of Heathfield, 

 Sussex), some of which are probably referable to fresh-water 

 aquatic plants ; others to trees allied to the yew or cypress 

 (Thuyites). 



Asterophyllites. 1 Case A. The specimens of elegant foli- 

 age on slabs of coal-shale, labelled Asterophyllites, Annularia, 

 and Sphenophyllum, belong to a tribe of extinct dico- 

 tyledonous plants, which, like the existing Cycadese, had 

 their seeds exposed ; hence the name of the order, Gymno- 

 sperms, or naked seeds. 



The Asterophyllites, so named from the star-like disposition 

 of their foliage, had branched articulated stems, with verti- 

 cillate leaves arranged perpendicularly to the branches which 

 supported them ; but as the foliage is in most examples par- 

 tially imbedded and concealed in the stone, the natural ap- 

 pearance of the plant is but seldom observable. The fossils 

 known as Volkmannia are now ascertained to be Asterophyl- 

 lites in fructification. 



The Annularia were herbaceous plants, with verticillate 

 foliage, like the former ; but the whorls were arranged on 



> Figured in " Medals of Creation," p. 152; and "Wonders of Geo- 

 logy," 6th edit. p. 717. 



