GREY CHALK MARL. 103 



exhibits its ligneous structure. It is exceedingly friable, and falls into a 

 carbonaceous powder upon exposure to the air. 



The specimens found at Harasey, seldom exceed a few inches either in 

 length or breadth ; they are of a compressed cylindrical form, and appear 

 to be the remains of branches, or stems of small trees. 



Locahty. Hamsey. 



2. Aments or cones of unknown vegetables ? ? Tab. IX. figs. 4, 5. 

 7,8. 11. 



Woodward's Catalogue, Part % p. £2. 6. 72. " Three cones, seeming 

 to be of the larix." 



Org. Rem. Vol. 1. PI. 6. figs. 16, 17. 



These are the supposed " fossil juli of the larch," for which the chalk 

 pits of Cherry Hinton have been so long celebrated. Since the time of 

 Woodward, these bodies have excited considerable attention, and yet their 

 nature is still involved in obscurity ; in fact, their appearance is so equi- 

 vocal, that some naturalists have been induced to consider them as the 

 remains o^ animals, rather than of vegetables. 



Dr. Parsons thought they bore a greater resemblance to the roots of a 

 plant, than to the parts of fructification. 



A. B. Lambert, Esq. V.P,L. S., to whom I shewed a very perfect 

 specimen, was immediately struck with its affinity to the cone of a species 

 of pinus. 



Mr. Parkinson supposes, " that the appearance of these fossils cer- 

 tainly supports the idea of their having been either aments or cones of 

 some tree not now known, at least to the European botanist ; whilst, on 

 the other hand, the situation in which they occur, renders this supposition 

 highly problematical. Instead of being associated with other fossil ve- 

 getables, or in matrices which have originated in the decomposition of 

 vegetable matter, they have only been found in chalk, which has pro- 

 ceeded chiefly from aqueous deposition ; and in part frojn the decomposi- 

 tion of animal, but certainly not of vegetable matter*." 



* Organic Remains, Vol. 1. p. 447. 



