[Footnote 36: Polished specimens of the pebbles of the Isle of Wight, exhibiting sections of the Choanites, Ventriculites, &c., may be obtained of _Mr. Fowlestone_, Lapidary, 4, Victoria Arcade, Ryde; who also has generally on sale a good series of the fossils of the Island. The minute organisms that occur in flints, many of which are highly interesting objects when seen by transmitted light under a good microscope, can be procured of _Mr. Topping_, that well-known preparer of microscopic objects, New Winchester Street, Pentonville Hill; and fossil infusorial earths, &c. in great perfection of _Mr. Poulton_, Microscopic Artist, Reading, Berks.] [Illustration: Plate XLV.] PLATE XLV. Fossil Corals and other Zoophytes. Fig. 1. "A fossil body, from near Bath, the surface of which is covered by stelliform markings, which seem to have been formed by a coralloid."--_Parkinson._ This fossil is supposed by Mr. Morris to be the cast of one of those mollusca which form and inhabit hollows in stone, coral, &c. (hence termed _Lithodomi_). In the present instance, the mollusk had bored into a mass of coral, the imprints of the stellular polype-cells of which remain on the surface of the cast. It closely resembles fig. 3, Plate XXXVI. of Faujas St. Fond, Hist. Mont. St. Pierre, which is described as a coral; it is the _Astrea geometrica_, of Goldfuss. Fig. 2. A fossil coral from Maestricht. At _b_, is shown an enlarged view of one of the stars. Fig. 3. "A siliceous fossil from Essex."--_Mr. Parkinson._ (_Ventriculites racemosus_, of Mr. Toulmin Smith.) I must confess myself unable to determine the nature of this specimen. Figs. 4, & 6. Corals from the cretaceous strata of St. Peter's Mountain, Maestricht (_Gorgonia bacillaris ?_ of Goldfuss). At _a_, is shown one of the cells in fig. 6, magnified. Fig. 5. A pebble, split asunder, exposing the remains of a spongite, which formed the nucleus of the flint.[37] [Footnote 37: For an account of the formation of flint, see Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 300. (_6th Edition._)] Fig. 7. Another spongite in a pebble; from Sewardstone, Essex. Fig. 8. A water-worn, silicified, or rather chalcedonic Ventriculite, from France. Fig. 9. A very beautiful transverse section of the stem of a Ventriculite in a flint; the colour of the original being retained. This was another precious gem in the estimation of the amiable author of "The Organic Remains of a Former World." Fig. 10. A portion of a Choanite in flint; from gravel, Islington. Fig. 11. A perfect specimen of a small simple coral (Fungia), from Maestricht. Fig. 12. A spongite in a pebble; similar to fig. 5. Such specimens are very common in the shingle along the sea-shore at Brighton, Dover, &c.