THE CARBONIFEROUS FOSSIL PLANTS 

 OF THE CLYDE BASIN. 



BY ROBERT KIDSTON, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 



IN Britain the Carboniferous formation is divisible into : l 



f I. Upper Coal-measures. 



TT ft v II. Middle Coal-measures. 



Upper Carboniferous. H TTT T ^ , 



111. Lower Coal-measures. 



I IV. Millstone Grit Series. 



T /-t i f V. Carboniferous Limestone Series. 



Lower Carboniferous.^ -c TT f\ i -r o i < a 



( VI. Calciferous Sandstone Series. 



Of these only Nos. III., IV., V., and VI. occur in the Clyde area. 



Locally the Lower Coal-measures are referred to as the " Upper Coals and 

 Ironstones," and the coals of the Carboniferous Limestone series as the 

 " Lower Coals and Ironstones," but as these terms are very misleading I 

 have adopted a nomenclature which is applicable to the Carboniferous 

 formation iu its entirety in Britain. 



One most interesting circumstance in regard to the vertical distribution of 

 the Carboniferous flora is that, as far as observations have yet shown, not a 

 single species (with the exception of Stigmaria) passes from the Lower 

 Carboniferous into the Upper Carboniferous. 



I am specially indebted for the Lanarkshire Coal-plants to Mr. R. Dunlop 

 and Mr. P. Jack. For the Renfrewshire fossils I have received much 

 assistance from Mi 1 . Peter Macnair, and for the Ayrshire records I am very 

 specially indebted to the Rev. Dr. Landsborough ; also to Messrs. A. 

 Sinclair, J. Rorrison, D. Beveridge, J. Stevenson, R. Lintou, and others. 

 Mr. J. Smith has submitted to me specimens from the Kilwinning district r 

 arid to the same geologist I owe the majority of the records from the 

 Calciferous Sandstone series. To the Director of the Geological Survey of 

 Scotland I owe my thanks for permission to include in the list the plants 

 collected in Arran by Mr. A. Macconochie and Mr. D. Tait, but 

 it is to Dr. W. Ivison Macadam, F.R.S.E., that we owe our first 

 knowledge of the Lower Carboniferous plants of Lochrin Burn. From the 

 late Dr. John Young, the late Mr. A. Paton, and the late Mr. James Bennie, 

 I also received much assistance. 



The list is divided into Lower Coal-measures, Carboniferous Limestone 

 series, and Calciferous Sandstone series. In mentioning the horizons of the 

 Coal-measure plants, I merely give the name of the seam, but the fossils have 

 been derived in almost all cases from the shale forming the roof of the coal. 



The following list of the various localities may be of assistance in finding 

 them : 



1 See Kidston, Proc. Roij. Phys. Soc. Edin., vol. xii., 1894, pp. 183-258. 



