UPPER, OR FLINTY CHALK. 157 



VEGETABLES. 



1. Wood. This occurs in the same state as that of the chalk marl, 

 but is in larger masses, and the Mgneous structure more distinctly ex- 

 hibited. It varies from a reddish brown, to a deep chocolate colour ; and 

 the more compact specimens possess the appearance and texture of char- 

 coal *. In some instances the knots or rudiments of branches are per- 

 ceptible ; in others, perforations caused by the depredations of the teredo ; 

 and in one example the tubular part of the shell still remains. Wood is 

 sometimes found in the centre of flints. 



LocaHties. South-street; Off ham. 



2. Leaves. Tab. ix. figs. 1, 2, 12. 



Impressions of a lineari-lanceolate form, somewhat resembUng in tex- 

 ture and colour the wood above described, are occasionally found in the 

 upper chalk, near Lewes. These closely resemble the leafy culms, or 

 stems of plants, and are undoubtedly the remains of unknown vegetables ; 

 in some instances they are attached to portions of wood. 



The imperfect state in which these remains occur, renders it impossible 

 to determine the nature of the original. From their being associated 

 with the supposed juU of the larch, it has been conjectured that they are the 

 leaves of a species of laria: or pinus, of which the bodies alluded to are the 

 fruit ; but as the nature of the latter is very uncertain, the coincidence 

 may be merely accidental. It must however be acknowledged, that these 

 remains and impressions bear a closer resemblance to the fohage of a 

 species of pin us, than to that of any other vegetable with which we are 

 acquainted. 



Tab. ix. fig. 2, represents the usual appearance of the specimens. 



fig. 12, is in aU probability a flattened culm or stem, with the 



linear leaves surrounding it. 



* It seems probable that " the brown, or blackish brown substance, discovered in the Sufi'olk 

 chalk, and which sometimes has the appearance of a sooty powder, and is occasionally fibrous f," 

 is wood in a state of decomposition. 



t Phillips' Geology, e^t. 1822, p. 72. 



