BRITISH CARBONIFEROUS PLANTS 145 



and the North of England, descriptions have been given by 

 Stopes and Watson (63) of the impressions and petrifactions of the 

 South Lancashire coalfield, and by Horwood (23) of the Leicester- 

 shire coalfield. Investigations are in progress by Moysey of the 

 flora of the southern portion of the South Derbyshire coalfield, 

 especially in comparison with that of Yorkshire. Attention may 

 be called to the method successfully employed by him (39) for 

 splitting the fossiliferous ironstone nodules so abundant in this 

 coalfield. 



The fossil floras of the Mendip Series of coalfields, in the 

 south and west of England and Wales, have received further 

 attention. It has been shown that a great barren coalfield 

 exists in Devon and North Cornwall, composed of Middle 

 Coal Measures overlying Lower Carboniferous and Devonian 

 rocks (4, 7). The fossil plants obtained from the recent borings 

 through the Waldershare and Fredville Series of the con- 

 cealed coalfield of Kent have been examined, and have proved 

 to indicate that these rocks belong to the Transition Series (9). 

 The fossil flora of the Forest of Dean coalfield has been the 

 subject of study and the results will appear shortly. D. G. 

 Lillie, of Cambridge, has made further collections from the 

 Bristol coalfield, and has some interesting records to add to 

 those published by Kidston, more than twenty years ago. His 

 paper may be expected to appear before long. 



As regards the Scotch coal basins, a few species have been 

 added by Kidston (31) to the Lower Coal Measure flora of 

 Ayrshire, and the same author has also published a systematic 

 list of the Carboniferous plants of the Clyde basin (27). Bailey 

 and Tait (12) have recorded a coal measure flora at Port Seton, 

 East Lothian. 



Kidston (29) has published an interesting and important 

 memoir on the fossil floras of the Canonbie coalfield, Dumfries- 

 shire, near the Scottish borderland. The whole of this region 

 was formerly mapped by the Geological Survey as Calciferous 

 Sandstone. Kidston finds, however, that nearly all the palaeo- 

 botanical horizons of the Lower and Upper Carboniferous are 

 represented, including the Lower, Middle and Upper Coal 

 Measures. Several new and interesting plants are described 

 from this region. 



Little or no progress appears to have been made with 

 regard to the fossil floras of the Irish coalfields. A short note 



10 



