are seventy-six species.

The grasses have given

way to ferns, for the ferns and fern-like plants are the most numerous in New Zealand, and cover immense districts. They replace the graminea, or grasses, of other countries, and give a character to all the open land of the hills and plains. Some of the arborescent species grow to thirty feet and more in height, and the variety and elegance of their forms, from the minutest species to the giants of their kind, are most remarkable."*

In the accumulations of vegetable matter now in the progress of formation in the morasses, and bays, and creeks of New Zealand, the remains of ferns largely predominate; and I am informed by my son,† that in the estuaries they are associated with shells of the genera terebratula and trigonia.

ON COLLECTING BRITISH FOSSIL VEGETABLES.

From what has been advanced, the student will have anticipated, that to obtain an illustrative collection of the fossil vegetables of Great Britain, different localities must be visited. The fruits, and stems of the palms, Coniferæ, and many species of

* Dr. Dieffenbach's New Zealand.

† Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington, New Zealand.

dicotyledons, may be collected in the Isle of Sheppey, and other places where the London Clay is exposed. (See Excursion to the Isle of Sheppey, Part III.) Cycadeous stems and coniferous wood may be procured in the Isle of Portland; and the foliage of several species of Zamiæ and ferns, in the carbonaceous deposits of the Oolite, on the Yorkshire coast, near Scarborough, and at Gristhorpe Bay. The Lias near Lyme Regis, Charmouth, and their vicinity, affords stems and branches of coniferous trees, and leaves of Cycadeæ. Ferns, Sigillariæ, Calamites, and the usual species of the carboniferous Flora, may be found in every coalmine. Fuci, particularly a branched species, Fucoides Targionii (see vignette of the title-page), occur abundantly in the firestone, or upper green sand, at the foot of the chalk-downs, near Bignor, in Sussex; and sometimes in chalk flints.

A list of a few of the most remarkable British localities is subjoined. In addition to the suggestions already given as to the mode of collecting specimens of fossil plants, it may be necessary to state that the dicotyledonous leaves in the tertiary marls and clays, are generally very delicate and friable, and liable to flake off from the stone in the state of a carbonaceous film. This may, in a great measure, be prevented by carefully covering them with a thin coating of mastic varnish, before they are placed in the drawers of the cabinet. In extracting these specimens, a broad chisel will be found the

most convenient instrument. In searching for fossils in coal-mines, the collector must remember that the nodules of ironstone often contain very beautiful examples of the leaves of ferns, and fruits of the Lepidodendra. These nodules, when of an oblong shape, as Lign. 3, fig. 1, should be split open in a longitudinal direction, with a smart blow of the hammer, and the enclosed leaf will thus be exposed as in Lign 3, figs. 2, 3, p. 81.

Brook-point, Isle of Wight. Wealden (Cycadeæ, and coni

ferous wood.

Calbourn, Isle of Wight. . Tert. (Charæ, stems and

Camerton, near Bath

fruits.

coal.

nites, ferns, and lig

nite.

Ferns, several species.

Tunbridge Wells (vicinity) Wealden.

The above list must, of course, be considered merely as suggestive.

In collecting Stigmaria, the student should particularly direct his attention to the relation existing between these fossils and their supposed stems, the Sigillariæ; for although the interesting discovery mentioned in page 143, if accurately described, leaves no doubt on the subject, yet the mode in which the radicles of the Stigmariæ are articulated to the main branches, and the regularity of their distribution, are characters not observable in the roots of other trees, and render the acquisition of additional evidence highly desirable.