35 



it to have a great affinity to Abies oblonga of Lindley and Hutton, 

 but it is more spherical, and the scales are smaller, more regular 

 and numerous. 



3. Carpolithes Smithice, Mantell. — From the white chalk of Kent. 

 An account of an imperfect specimen of this fruit was formerly given 

 by Dr. Mantell in his ' Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex.' He 

 lately detected a second and more perfect example in the choice col- 

 lection of Mrs. Smith of Tunbridge Wells, in honour of whom he 

 has named it. Dr. Mantell remarks, that a slight inspection was 

 sufficient to determine its vegetable origin, for several seeds were 

 imbedded in its substance, and others had been detached in clearing 

 it from the chalk. Dr. Robert Brown suggested that the original 

 was probably a succulent compound berry, the seeds appearing to 

 have been imbedded in a pulpy substance like the fruit of the mul- 

 berry, which is a spurious compound berry, formed by a partial 

 union of the enlarged and fleshy calices, each inclosing a dry mem- 

 branous pericarp. 



From the occurrence of the cones above described with the drifted 

 remains of land and freshwater reptiles peculiar to the Wealden, 

 Dr. Mantell infers that these fruits belong to the flora of the coun- 

 try of the /p'Maraoc^ow. 



" Notice on the fossilized remains of the soft parts of MoUusca." 

 By Gideon Algernon Mantell, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 



Substances presenting the same general appearance and composi- 

 tion with coprolites, but destitute of the spiral structure, are thickly 

 interspersed among the shells which abound in the rocks of firestone 

 or upper greensand at Southborne in Sussex, sometimes occiirring 

 in the state of casts of shells of the genera Cucullaa, Venus, Trochus, 

 Rostellaria, &c., from the soft bodies of which testacea Dr. Mantell 

 considers them to have originated. They abound also in the layers 

 of firestone which form the line of junction with the gault, and are 

 not uncommon in the gault itself in several localities in Surrey and 

 Kent. 



Dr. Fitton, in his memoir ' On the Strata below the Chalk ' 

 (Geol. Trans, vol. iv. part 2. p. 11), has given an account of similar 

 concretions from Folkstone, where he observed them in some cases 

 surrounding or incorporated with fossil remains, and filling the in- 

 terior of Ammonites. Dr. Mantell has observed them also in the 

 Shanklin sand in Western Sussex, in Surrey, near Ventnor in the 

 Isle of Wight, and in Kent, and they especially abound in the Igua- 

 nodon quarry of Kentish rag near Maidstone, belonging to Mr. , W. 

 H. Bensted. > , 



Mr, Bensted having long paid attention to this subject, more 

 than two years ago submitted to Dr. Mantell specimens of fossil 

 shells, the cavities of which were filled with a dark brown substance 

 in every respect identical with the nodular and irregular concretions 

 of coprolitic matter which abound in the surrounding sandstone. 

 Mr. Bensted expressed his belief that the carbonaceous substance 

 was derived from the soft bodies of the Mollusca, and that the con- 



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