GALLERY.] 
natural history. (Fossils.) S3 
that of a compact ligneous substance). With these is also plae • 1 
dapeche , an inflammable fossil substance found by Humboldt in Souil 
America, having several properties of the common caoutchouc or India:; 
rubber ; — the hatchettine, a bituminous substance from Merthyr Tydvil in 
South Whies; the scheererite; the hartite , and the ixolyte of Haidinue; , 
&c. — Coal: black coal, and brown coal — of these a few specimens onI\ 
are deposited, their different varieties being rather objects for a geolo- 
gical collection. 
FOSSILS. 
Room I. 
The collections of Organic Remains begin, in Room I. with that of 
the Fossil Vegetables, at present deposited chiefly in the Wall Cases of 
the S. and W. sides of the room. A systematic botanical arrangement 
has been adopted, so far as the limited space and the as yet doubtful 
nature of many of those fossil remains admitted of it. 
Case 1 is set apart for the small number of fossils apparently of 
the class of submerged ALGiE, such as Fucoides, Confervites , &c. ‘ In 
the same Case are provisionally placed those impressions on coal slate, 
of plants with verticillated leaves, known by the generic names of Astero- 
phyllites , Annularia, & c. , and supposed by some to be referable to the 
Naiades ; as also a few that appear to bear affinity to the Marsilace^e, 
such as Pilularites , S olenites, &c, ; together with some other vegetable 
remains, the nature of which is not yet determined. 
The^upper division of Case 2 is occupied by the Equisetace^e, 
most of which may be united under the generic name of Calamites, the 
absence of the sheaths, by which the latter are said to be distinguishable 
from real Equiseta, being a character not to be depended upon. The 
species of Calamites , almost all from the rocks of the most ancient coal 
formation, are far from being satisfactorily determined, their internal 
structure being entirely unknown. The species of Calamitea of Cotta, 
(Case E.,) which exhibit a peculiar organic structure, can scarcely be 
said to belong to the same natural order. The genus Phyllotheca of 
Brongniart, from the coal sand-stone of Port Jackson, in which the 
sheaths are prolongated into leaves, is a distinct genus of this order ; as 
is likewise the Equiseium Lyellii from Pounceford. 
The lower division of Case 2, and part of 3, contain the Ferns ( Fi- 
lices), most of them as impressions in clay slate forming the carboni- 
ferous strata of the transition series. Many of them bear a strong re- 
semblance to existing, especially tropical, species ; and fructification, 
distinctly exhibiting the sporangia variously disposed in sori, &c., has 
latterly been observed in several species ; but the classification founded 
on characters derived from them and the distribution and ramifications 
of the nerves, though of great importance in the classification of recent 
ferns, is obviously, at least in the present state of our knowdedge, inap- 
plicable to those in a fossil state. The arrangement and the generic 
names here adopted, with occasional deviation, are those proposed in 
the concluding numbers of the late Count Sternberg’s work. The 
species, as far as determined, are all named ; the synonymy being added 
in most cases where it appeared requisite. 
In the upper division of Case 3, and part of 4 and 5, are placed 
