Miscellanies. - 167 
There are also the remains of several kinds of ferns in the Tilgate 
strata: one of the most elegant is the species named by M. Brong- 
niart, Sphenopteris Mantelli. Another is the Lonchoteris Mantelli, 
distinguished by the beautiful reticulated structure of the leaves, 
Besides the fossil vegetables above noticed, there are stems of 
other plants ; and vegetable matter in the state of lignite, (an impure 
coal,) is abundantly dispersed throughout the strata. 
Birds.—Long slender bones occur which were supposed to have 
belonged to birds; but from the discovery of the bones of the Pter- 
odactylus, (a flying reptile,) in the lias at Lyme Regis, it is now be- 
lieved that the specimens in question belonged to that extraordinary 
ee 
.—These consist of univalves and bivalves, allied to recent 
frat water genera. In some instances they constitute entire beds of 
limestone, of which the Sussex marble is a familiar example, 
The specimens above described are distributed in the cabinet as 
follows :— 
Shelf No. 1. Stems of vegetables, bones of Saurians, &c.* 
2. Vertebre, ribs, humeri, and other bones of the Iguanodon, ~~ 
galosaurus, Crocodile, Plesiosaurus, &c. 
3. A series of specimens, illustrative of the Geology of ee be 
¢ with the rocks of Bognor, and ending with the strata at 
Hastings. 
4. Bones of Turtles ; feeth of Iguanodon, &c.; horn and claw of 
ditto ; remains of Fishes, Birds, &c. ; vertebre or Crocodile and 
Plesiosaurus. 
_.5. Vegetable remains: Clathraria Lyellu, Encoeewies erosa, 
Ferns, Lignite, &c. 
6. Bones of the extremities and pelvis of the Iguanodon, Ne. 
In the drawers of the Cabinet, No. 6, there are also many fossils 
* from the Tilgate strata. 
From the examination of these organic remains, the iingee in- 
ferences arise :—~ 
Ist. The reptiles and vegetables must have been inhabitants of a 
country, enjoying a much higher temperature than any part of Eu- 
rope ; and the former, from their enormous magnitude and osteolo- 
gical characters, clearly belong to an order of things, of which the 
present state of the earth affords no example ; the epoch of their ex- 
istence may, indeed, be termed the age of reptiles. 
* On this Shelf there is also part of the fossil rib of a whale, from Brighton Cliffs. 
