70 Natural-Historical Collections. 
bus intus tubulos minimos: centralem majorem compressum, periphericos 
cylindricos exiguos. 
Found in a quarry of porphyry at Hiickelsbergem, a village between Friberg 
and Chemnitz. 
The solenites has a great resemblance to the root of Polypodium filix mas, 
when dug up at the beginning of spring. Sprengel supposes it may have been 
the root of the same fern, of which the End. psarolithus was the stem. 
III. Endogenites Asterolithus. 
Char. Spee. End. tubulis communibus parallelis irregulariter cylindricis, 
S. compressis obtuse angulatis, columellas includentibus singulas tetra-, 
penta-, hexa-, hepta-, octogonas tubulis farctas cylindricis, numerosis, 
qui ut plurimum in columellas congregati quadrangulares—octangulares, 
raro irregulariter sparsi sunt, rarissime iterum circumdant tubules minimos. 
Abounding with the End. Psarol. at Chemnitz. 
Many writers have conjectured that the asterolites had the same origin with 
fossil corals, but the structure of the tubes is perfectly dissimilar. Moreover, the 
Coralliolithi are chiefly found in calcareous rocks, never in red psammite, as our 
Asterolithi. Others, as Henckel, have supposed, with equal authority, that the 
asterolites were allied to the columnar Asteria, 7. e. Astroites, fragments of the 
arms and fingers of the Encrinites and Pentacrinites. Others again have imagin- 
ed that they were marine Polypi, petrified in the wood which they inhabited: yet 
ne polype ever possessed such a structure, or ever perforated wood. But those 
mollusca which live in submersed wood, i, ¢. the Teredines, are not very dissi- 
milar from them. 
Sprengel thinks that they are a peculiar family of plants, approaching seme- 
what to the ferns. 
IV. Endogenites Helmintholithus. 
Char. Spec. nd. tubulis parallelis duplicis structure, illis End. Aste- 
rolithi, his late compressis, varie canaliculatis sinuatisque, tubulos nume- 
roses minimos intus gerentibus. 
Found near Chemnitz with the former, but much more rarely. 
What has been said already with respect to the End. Asterolithus, equally ap- 
plies to the End. Helmintholithus; and indeed M. Sprengel would have compris- 
ed them under the same species, if the largest fragments of End. Asterolithi 
which he had examined, had shown any vestige of a vermicular form. 
VY. Endogenites Palmacites. 
Char. Spec. nd. tubulis parallelis confertis subregularibus compressis, 
altero latere subtereti, altero angulato duos s. tres tubulos exiguos continente. 
A few small fragments are found in the neighbourhood of Chemnitz. 
M. Sprengel refers it without any doubt to the fossil palms. 
VI. Endogenites Didymosolen. 
Char. Spec. nd. tubulis parallelis geminis, quorum alter major semi- 
teres, alter minor teres refertus tubulis minimis sex aut septem. 
Found with the End. Palmacites. 
M. Sprengel can find no analegy with its structure amongst plants, unless it 
be in the stipes of the Zamia media, and he refers it generally to the family of 
Cycadez. 
New Species of Tapir.—Mr. G. Cuvier lately made a report to the Academy 
of Sciences of France, on the memoir of Dr. Roulin, having for its object the na- 
tural history of the tapir, and particularly that of a new species of that genus, 
which the author has discovered in the high regions of the Cordilleras of the An- 
®des. The new tapir, according to Cuvier, has a much greater resemblance to the 
Palzotherium, than to any of the two species formerly known. The memoir, be- 
sides having added to the catalogue of animals a large quadruped, belonging to 
a genus which for a long time contained but a single species, throws light upon 
a fact which relates to the history of the antediluvian animals; for it had even 
been advanced by some authors, that a genus of these animals, the Mastodon, 
prebably still exists in the higher valleys of the Cordilleras. 
