194 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
[north 
which a considerable suite is deposited, many of them 
enclosing insects, &c .; to which, for the sake of com- 
parison, are added, specimens of recent copal, likewise 
containing insects;— -fossil copal or Highgate resin ; — reu¬ 
nite or retinasphali , found at Bovey ; together with some 
other related resinous substances ;—the idrialite, to which 
the bituminous cinnabar or brand-ertz is partly referable. 
To the bitumina belong the varieties of mineral pitch of all 
degrees of consistence, from the fluid naphtha and mineral 
oil or petroleum , to the solid and hard asphalt and jet or 
pitch coal; the elaterite or elastic bitumen of Derbyshire, 
(a suite of specimens exhibiting all degrees of solidity, from 
that of honey to that of a compact ligneous substance). 
With these is also placed the dapeche , an inflammable 
fossil substance found by Humboldt in South America, 
having several properties of the common caoutchouc or 
Indian rubber ;—the hatchettine , a bituminous substance 
from Merthyr Tydvil in South Wales, the sheer erite, &c. 
—Coal: black coal, and brown coal —of these a few speci¬ 
mens only are deposited, their different varieties being 
rather objects for a geological collection. 
The collections of Organic Remains begin iii 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 yet small number of fossils 
apparently of the class of submerged Algje, such as the 
Eucoids , Confermtes , &c. In the same Case are pro¬ 
visionally placed those impressions on coal slate, of 
plants with verticillated leaves, known by the generic 
names of AsteropliylUtes , 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 
Pilnlarites , Solenites , &c.; together with some other 
