LETTER XII. 
FOSSIL ALCYONIUM DESCRIBED BY ABBE FORTIS SPECIMENS OF 
VARIOUS INEDITED FOSSIL ZOOPHYTES DESCRIBED. 
Justice to the Abb6 Fortis impels me to remark that the observa- 
tions here adduced on the fossil alcyonium, depicted Plate X. Fig. 11, 
are derived from a manuscript tract, which I was so fortunate as to 
purchase at the sale of the late Mr. Stranger’s library, and which, I 
have every reason to believe, proceeded from the pen of that excel- 
lent oryctologist. The specimen here represented I also obtained 
from the previous sale of the fossils of Mr. Strange, and it appears to be 
the more valuable from my not having seen any similar specimen in 
other collections. The above-mentioned tract was accompanied by a 
plate exhibiting the specimens, now in my possession, with four others, 
shewing the same substance adherent to different shells. According 
to the Abbe’s account, this species of fossil alcyonium commonly 
forms a covering to shells, and is most frequently seen on a species of 
nerite. These fossils are found in different parts of Tuscany : the 
Abbfe himself has not only seen them in the neighbourhood of Vo- 
laterzano, and in a chalky tract towards Sena, which the inhabitants 
call Le Biancane, but in some others of the Tuscan hills ; and he once 
saw a specimen of this kind, which had been found in that neighbour- 
hood, in the museum of Ferdinand Bassi of Bologna. But these fos- 
sils are chiefly to be found in the hills of Cerretani, which lay towards 
Ficeclum, being brought to view by the washing away of the earth 
by rain. It was from this spot that the specimens which I possess 
were obtained. It is worthy of observation, that Mercatus does not 
