NATURAL HISTORY. 
69 
GALLERY.] 
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 ;— hatchettine, a bituminous substance from Merthyr Tydvil in 
South Wales; scheererite; hartite of Haidinger, &c.— Coal: black coaly 
and brown coal —of these a few specimens only are deposited, their dif¬ 
ferent varieties being rather objects for a geological collection. 
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 T . 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 Alg^e, such as Fucoides, Covfervites , &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 , Annvlariay &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, Solenites, &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 Equisetaceje, 
most of wiiich may be united under the generic name of CalamiteSy 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 Fhyllotheca 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 low^er division of Case 2, and part of 3, contain the Ferns ( Fi- 
LlCEs), 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 knowledge, 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 
those genera which are generally supposed to belong to the family of 
Lycopodiace^, of which Lepidodendron of Sternberg ( Sagenaria of 
Presl.) is the principal one. Much uncertainty still prevails in the deter- 
