The Medals of Creation, Volumes 1 and 2: First Lessons in Geology and the Study of Organic RemainsMantell, Gideon Algernon
Science
The Medals of Creation, Volumes 1 and 2: First Lessons in Geology and the Study of Organic Remains
Mantell, Gideon Algernon
Geology -- England -- Guidebooks; Paleontology
[128] _Podozamites_ of Braun.
[129] Proc. Yorkshire Philos. Soc. 1849, p. 45.
[130] Bird's Yorkshire, tab. i. figs. 1 and 7.
It does not appear that the structure of the cone has been preserved
in any of the specimens, so as to demonstrate the characters of the
original; in all those I have examined, the surface of the fruit is
concealed by the elongated bracteæ, which are pressed flat, and adhere
so firmly to the inclosed body, as to render it impossible to ascertain
its nature.[131] Mr. Williamson is of opinion that the plant resembled
the recent _Cycas circinalis_, in its great height, and lax habits; and
states, that he had seen portions of leaves that were three feet in
length.
[131] Brit. Mus. Petrif. p. 55.
Zamites crassus. _Lign. 49, fig. 1._--In Sandown Bay, on the south
coast of the Isle of Wight, where the Wealden beds rise to the surface
from beneath the lowest strata of Greensand on the east and west,
several cones have been found, associated with other vegetable remains,
and bones of the Iguanodon, &c. A fossil cone from this locality is
here figured; it bears considerable resemblance to the fruit of the
recent _Encephalartos_.
[Sidenote: ZAMITES OVATUS.]
Zamites ovatus. _Lign. 49, fig. 2._--A few examples of cycadeous
fruits have been collected from the Greensand of Kent and Sussex. The
beautiful fossil represented, _Lign. 49, fig. 2_, from Foss. Flor.
is referred to the Zamiæ, by the eminent authors of that work; but it
presents in its imbricated character a greater analogy to a pine cone.
[Illustration: Lign. 49. Fossil Fruits of Cycadeous Plants; 1/2 _nat._
Fig. 1.--Zamites Crassus. _Wealden, Isle of Wight._
2.--Zamites Ovatus. _Greensand, Kent._
]
Zamites Sussexiensis.--At Willingdon, near Eastbourn, in Sussex, a cone
nearly six inches long was discovered in a bed of Greensand, which
abounds in fossil coniferous wood: it is of an elongated cylindrical
form, and covered with hexagonal scales. I have provisionally named
it _Zamites Sussexiensis_ (Geol. Proc. 1843), as it presents a nearer
resemblance to the fruit of Zamiæ than to that of Conifers.
Trunks and Stems of Cycadaceæ.--In this section I shall notice the
fossil plants which occur so abundantly in the fresh-water deposits
that overlie the marine oolitic limestone of the Isle of Portland, and
which must be familiar to my readers, from the graphic account of the
circumstances under which they occur, by Mr. Webster, and subsequently
by Dr. Buckland, and Sir H. De la Beche. In my Wonders of Geology,
p. 387, and Geol. Isle of Wight, p. 395, the geological phenomena of
that most interesting locality, the Isle of Portland, are so fully
described, that it will not be necessary to dwell upon them; the
structure and affinities of the fossil vegetables are the especial
objects of our present inquiry.
[Sidenote: MANTELLIA NIDIFORMIS.]
[Illustration: Lign. 50. Silicified Trunk of Mantellia nidiformis
(_Brongn._); 1/4 _nat._
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