In the fossil, _fig. 2. Lign. 65_, from the Isle of Sheppey, the tubes of the teredinæ are seen in relief, in consequence of the surface of the block of wood having decayed and been removed. Fossil Liliaceæ.--The family of endogens, termed _Liliaceæ_, comprises many beautiful plants; those with annual stems, as the Lily, Hyacinth, Tulip, &c. are well known for the variety and splendour of their blossoms; some of the arborescent forms, as the Tulip-tree, attain a large size, but the flowers of this division are relatively small. In tertiary strata, the stems, leaves, fruits, and even the imprints of flowers, have been discovered, of plants related to _Sagittaria_ (Arrow-head), _Smilax_ (Bind-weed), _Convallaria_ (Lily of the valley), &c. The Dracæna (_Dragon-blood tree_), a tall, slender, elegant tree with amplexicaul leaves (common in our hot-houses), belongs to this family; and certain stems found with Clathrariæ, and bones of the Iguanodon, in the Kentish-rag at Maidstone (_ante_, p. 173), so closely resemble the trunk of this plant, that they have been named by Mr. König,[170] _Dracæna Benstedi_; the specimens are in the British Museum. Until the internal structure of these fossils has been examined, the correctness of this identification is, however, uncertain: the external resemblance to the stem of the Dracæna consists in the interrupted annular ridges, denoting amplexicaul leaves: no vestiges of the foliage have been observed. [170] Petrifactions, p. 49. [Sidenote: FRESH-WATER PLANTS. FOSSIL CHARÆ.] Fossil Fresh-water Plants.--The tertiary fresh-water strata often contain abundance of the remains of the aquatic vegetables that inhabited the lakes and rivers in which those deposits were formed. The remains of several species of the common lacustrine plant, the _Chara_, are found in immense quantities in the fresh-water limestones and marls of the Isle of Wight, of the coast of Hampshire, and of the Paris Basin. The shell-marls, still in progress of formation in the lakes of Scotland, and the travertine precipitated from thermal springs, in like manner envelop and preserve the leaves and fruits of recent species.