30 rOSSIL FLORA. 



PLATE VI. 



Fig. 18. Fossil fruit resembling the seed-vessels of plants of the genus Gupania {Amomocarpum, 

 of Brongniart; Cupanoides, of Bowerbank); M. Brongniart considers the original 

 to have been related to the Cardamoms {Amomum). 



Fig. 21. Probably a species of Cupanoides. 



Figs 20, & 22. Pericarp of a fruit ; its affinities unknown. 



Fig. 23. A piece of pyritous wood. 



Fig. 25. A rolled specimen of Nipadites. 



Figs. 24, & 26. Two fruits of plants of the Cucumber family {Cucumites). 



Figs. 27, & 29. Specimens of the stems of a species of extinct Club-moss {Lycopodites squa- 

 matus); fossils of this kind are abundant in the pyritous clay of Sheppey. 



Fig. 28. A fragment of silicified wood, rounded by attrition ; from the gravel-pits at Hackney. 



Figs. 15, & 17. I have purposelj' reserved the description of these fossils for this place, because 

 notwithstanding their close resemblance to the aments or cones of a pine or larch, 

 which led the earHer collectors to regard them as fruits, they do not belong to the 

 vegetable but to the animal kingdom, being the hardened excrementitious contents 

 {Coprolites) of the intestines of the fishes, with whose remains they are associated in 

 the chalk.' The specimens figured are from Cherry Hinton, in Cambridgeshire; 

 similar fossils occur in the Chalk and Chalk-marl of Sussex, Kent, &c. 



' See Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 432 ; and Dr. Buckland's Bridgwater Essaj's, vol. ii. pi. 15. 



