lOG 
CHOANITES. 
upper part is a little flattened, and has a cavity in 
the middle. Its colour resembles that of tobacco, 
and its parenchymatous substance cannot be com- 
pared to any thing better than to nutgalls when 
well dried.”* 
The fossil remains of this genus (hitherto in- 
discriminately placed among the alcyonia) were 
first noticed by M. Guettard at Verest, and at 
Mon trichard in Tourain, and form the subject of 
a paper published in the Memoirs of the Mcademy 
of Sciences at Paris (ann. 1757). He observes, 
that they are of a globular form, having the 
base in many examples elongated into a pedicle; 
In the centre of the superior part is a circular open- 
ing, generally filled “ with the substance in which 
the fossils are imbedded. This cavity is larger in 
its upper than in its lower part, and is continued al- 
most to the pedicle, in some specimens appearing to 
penetrate it. From the circumference of the open- 
ing, lines may be traced, that not only pass over the 
whole of the spherical part, where they form striae 
more or less distinct, but also penetrate the sub- 
stance of the zoophyte. There is seldom more 
than one opening, but instances have occurred in 
which there were three.” The fossils repre- 
sented in PI. ix. figs. 1. 3, 4. 6 ? 8., and PI. xi. fig. 8. 
Org. Rem. Vol. ii. belong to this genus. The 
largest Sussex species is that which, in honour to 
Charles Konig, of the British Museum, I have 
named Choanites Konigi. It is inversely conical ; 
externally marked with irregular fibres, some of 
* f)rganic Remains, vol. ii. p. ftl. 
