§16. FOSSIL ZOOPHYTES. 319 



Clathraria, with the petioles attached, has been discovered ; 

 as this plant essentially belongs to the flora of the Wealden, 

 its description will be given in a subsequent section of this 

 discourse. 



A few imperfect specimens of an oval compressed fruit, 

 have been found in the chalk near Lewes, and in Kent, 

 This fruit, so far as can be judged from the examples known, 

 appears to have been a compound berry, having, like the 

 mulberry, the seeds imbedded in a soft pulpy mass.* 



16. Fossil zoophytes. — The soft and flexible zoophytes 

 are so exceedingly numerous in the flints, that but few 

 nodules are destitute of traces of sponges, and other kinds 

 of amorphozoa and porifera. In the white chalk, corals are 

 comparatively rare ; but the Maestricht beds contain them 

 in great abundance. There are certain layers of a very 

 friable earthy chalk in the cliffs along the Kentish coast, 

 and especially near Dover, that abound in very delicate 

 and beautiful species of numerous small corals ; as Rete- 

 pora, Pustulopora, Millepora, Idmonea Comptoniana, &c.f 

 A small Caryophyllia (Lign. 58, fig. 3) is common in the 

 English chalk ; a species of Turbinolia {Lign. 58, figs. 

 1, 2) in the gait ; and of Astrcea in the greensand. Speci- 

 mens have been collected of several other genera ; but the 

 absence of the large madrepores and stony corals is a re- 

 markable fact, corroborating the evidence derived from other 

 sources, that the white chalk was deposited in the profound 



* I have named this fruit Caiyolithes Smiihice, in honour of Mrs. 

 Smith of Tunbridge Wells ; a lady of consummate skill in the dissec- 

 tion of chalk fossils, and most ardent and liberal in the promotion of 

 palaeontological science. Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 196. 



f Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 284. I have a splendid mass, from 

 Dover, of retepora and pustulopora, covering a surface of chalk, six 

 inches by four ; the chalk itself wholly consisting of an aggregation of 

 polythalamian shells ; At was collected by Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge 

 Wells. Specimens of these chalk corals may be obtained of the 

 dealer, W. Griffiths, of Dover, and 91, Tooley-street, London. 



