Fine specimens of this are now very scarce.
Another of these alcyonites has been polished all round, instead of dividing it: and the pebble being translucent, one can almost count the fibres or tubes disposed lengthwise.
Then we have a zoophyte, not injected as are the choanites, but preserved bodily, in delicate gray flint. It is an undoubted “actinia:” in every respect the same with those pulpy individuals who are displaying their jelly-like bodies and floral hues in many a household aquarium. This creature once floated up and down in shallow marine pools, or clung to banks of ribbon-weed fringing the coast-skerries. At present, himself of stone, he is firmly wedged in a hollow within a large pebble, and reminds us of the words of a pretty song:—
“I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls.”
Several silicified sponges may next be examined. These are not exactly beautiful, but they are curiously intricate; the once elastic tubes having stiffened into “silex” of a light brown colour, and a horizontal section displaying their fine reticulations.
A step further, and what is that handsome stone? It is a block of Devonian jasper: scarcely so hard as the Egyptian, but more attractive, owing to the richness of its hues. It is striated with veins of agate, and here and there “shot” with a dark metallic “moss” of the colour of bloodstone. As a set off to this, the lapidary has arranged with true taste some quaint pieces of conglomerate, in which the nodules of chalcedony or crystals of quartz have taken a high polish, and are agreeably relieved by streaks of red jasper and blotches of yellow limestone.
Another part of the board exhibits a score of the well-known “echini,” which children call “sea-eggs.” These embrace two varieties, “spatangus” and “cor anguinum;” or, in the vernacular dialect, “fairy-loaves” and “fairy-hearts.” A third form of the Spatangus kind, but with a pointed cusp, is called “Galerites albogalerus.” A few are chalcedonized: in others, a bright spar has filled up the interior of the hollow conical shell.
ANANCHYTES OVATUS. FAIRY LOAF.