108 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



which occur in these strata. The shells, as we 

 have seen, are very abundant, hut they include 

 only a few genera and species, a circumstance 

 characteristic of fluviatile and lacustrine forma- 

 tions. With the exception of waterworn frag- 

 ments of wood, the Chares are the only fossil 

 vegetables that have come under my notice. The 

 mammalian remains are, at present, of excessive 

 rarity ; but I doubt not diligent research would 

 soon add to the number already known to the 

 palaeontologist.* 



Fossil Chara. — The aquatic plant termed Chara 

 is, of course, familiar to every one, as it abounds in 

 lakes, streams, and rivulets, throughout the king- 

 dom. The stems are hollow, and composed of 

 tubes filled with a fluid in which green globules 

 circulate. The fruit is a minute spherical body, 

 enclosed in a calcareous integument formed of five 

 spirally-twisted plates, which unite at the sum- 

 mit. -J- These fruits or seed-vessels when first dis- 

 covered in a fossil state were supposed to be the 



* I would refer the general reader, who is not conversant with the various 

 conditions in which the remains of vegetables and animals occur in the 

 mineral kingdom, according to the circumstances under which they were 

 originally imbedded, and the chemical changes they may have subsequently 

 one, to my remarks "On the Nature of Fossils or Organic Remains," 

 Chap. III. Medals of Creation, vol. i. See also " Instructions for the collecting 

 Of fossils," vol. ii. p. 885. 



t McdaN of Creation, vol. i. p. 188. 



