[N] [Note VIII.] Zoophytes of the Chalk.
Lign. 14:—Choanites Konigi: from the Chalk.
| Fig. | 1.— | A transverse section. |
| 2.— | Upper portion of the body. | |
| 3.— | Vertical section, like the pebble, [Pl. II.] p. 41. | |
| 4.— | A flint, enclosing a Choanite, which is exposed on the upper surface. | |
| 5.— | Various forms of siliceous spines of Choanites and other analogous bodies; magnified slightly. |
The Choanites must have swarmed in the Chalk ocean, for in some of the strata almost every flint exhibits traces of these zoophytes.[O]
[O] The shingle at Brighton and Bognor in Sussex, and in various localities in the Isle of Wight, abounds in specimens more or less perfect. I would inform my fair readers who may visit these places, and be inclined to purchase a brooch, in illustration of these "Thoughts on a Pebble," that by far the greater number of the so-called Brighton and Isle of Wight moss-agates, jaspers, &c., sold by the lapidaries and jewellers, are of German or Scotch origin; and that the false-emeralds, and aquamarines, are water-worn fragments of common green glass bottles!
CORALS IN CHALK.