12 



The English termination lite, which directly proceeds from the Latin 

 termination lithus, implying a stony nature, appears to be sufficient, 

 if added to the name of any substance, to point out its having sus- 

 tained the petrifying change : thus, corallite conveys the idea of a 

 petrified coral. But, in some instances, it will be found that brevity 

 and euphonia will demand a little alteration in this termination, from 

 its not being always capable of easy adaption to the last syllable of 

 the name of the substance, which is intended to be described, as 

 having undergone this particular change. In these cases, both in the 

 Latin tongue and the French language, the termination ite has been 

 employed to denote that the substance spoken of has undergone the 

 process of lapidification. By the employment, therefore, of one or 

 of the other of these terminations, I hope to be almost always capable 

 of clearly designating the petrified substance, with the least possible 

 change of received terms. 



o 



Proceeding, therefore, to the consideration of the zoophytes, we 

 shall, agreeably to the proposed arrangement, take for the first subject 

 of our examination, the genus tubipore ; (tubipora, Lin.) being the 

 first of the order of zoophytes in the Linnsean classification. 



TUBIPORITES is the term applicable to the zoophytes which, in a 

 fossil state, compose this genus : the generic characters of which are, 

 that they consist of cylindric, hollow, erect, parallel, aggregated tubes. 



These tubes, which in the recent coral form the habitation of an 

 animal, most probably of the polype kind, are in the fossil filled, in 

 various degrees, with calcareous, argillaceous, or siliceous matter, 

 separate or combined. In some specimens, in a transparent, crystal- 

 lized, and in others in an opaque, amorphous state. 



The organ-pipe coral, (tubipora musica, Linnaei,) so well known and 

 so much admired by collectors, for its curious form and beautiful red 

 colour, is, I suspect, not known in a mineralized state. The contrary 

 having, however, been very generally supposed to be the case> I have 

 thought it necessary to be rather particular on this head. 



