In this deposit of coniferous wood, two or more fruits apparently referable to _Zamiæ_ have been discovered; one specimen, five and a half inches long, and of an elongated cylindrical form, covered with rhomboidal eminences, I have figured and described as _Zamites Sussexiensis_.[148] [148] Geol. Proc. 1843. [Illustration: Lign. 58. Fragment of Coniferous Wood in Flint. _From a wall in Lewes Priory,_] The White Chalk of England has afforded but few traces of plants of this family. Fragments of coniferous wood are, however, occasionally found in the state of carbonaceous, or reddish brown friable masses, and when this substance is removed, the surface of the chalk is seen to be marked with impressions of ligneous fibres; sometimes the surface is studded over with little pyriform eminences, which are cretaceous casts of perforations made by insects in the wood. These specimens, when all traces of the wood are absent, are very puzzling to those who are not aware of their origin. Occasionally silicified fragments of wood are found imbedded in flint. I have an interesting specimen of this kind obtained from a wall in Lewes Priory (_Lign. 58_), and though it must have been exposed to the influence of the weather for nearly eight centuries, its surface still exhibits coniferous structure. [Sidenote: WOOD IN FLINT.] Tertiary Coniferous Wood.--The Tertiary formations in some localities abound in coniferous plants and trees, which, in the Paris basin, are associated with bones of mammalia; several species of pine (_Pinus_) and of yew (_Taxus_) from those deposits are described by M. Brongniart. I have collected fossils of this kind from the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey, Bracklesham Bay, and Bognor in Sussex, and Alum Bay, in the Isle of Wight; and from the plastic clay at Newhaven. Fossil Foliage and Fruit of Conifers.--From this digression on the pine-forests and drift-wood of the secondary formations, we return to the examination of the foliage and fruits of this order of vegetables that are preserved in the mineral kingdom. Araucaria peregrina (_Lindley and Hutton_). _Lign. 59, fig.1._--With the trunks and branches of conifers of the Lias, cones and foliage are occasionally found: a beautiful example of a branch with the leaves preserved, is figured, _Lign. 59_. This fossil has been so admirably cleared from the shale which invested it (by Miss Philpot) that even the surface of the leaves is exposed. It so closely resembles a twig of _Altingia excelsa_, that the eminent authors of Foss. Flor. have named it as above. But M. Brongniart states that the foliage differs from that of the two living groups of Araucariæ: in _Araucaria Brasiliensis_, the leaves are flat, in _Altingia excelsa_, quadrangular; in the fossil the leaves are short, fleshy, arranged spirally, and inserted. [Illustration: Lign. 59. Fig. 1.--Part of a Branch of Araucaria peregrina; _nat._ _Lias, Lyme Regis._