ANCIENT SEDIMENTS. 315 



Coal-Measures. The Middle and Lower Coal-Measures 

 have a much greater similarity in their flora, but here, too, 

 we find each series characterised by its fossil plants." 

 Appended to this valuable address is a table showing the 

 vertical distribution of the Coal plants in Britain. 



Referring to the author's view that the plants are more 

 useful than the mollusca for separating the Carboniferous 

 strata, it may be remarked that at the present time such is 

 undoubtedly the case, at any rate so tar as Britain is con- 

 cerned, owing largely to the care which has been exercised 

 in studying these plants by a number of pakeobotanists, 

 amongst whom the author of the address is prominent ; but 

 one cannot help thinking that the time is soon coming when 

 the animal remains of the Carboniferous strata will be re- 

 cognised by British geologists as being of far more import- 

 ance in classifying those strata than they at present suppose. 

 Reference has been made in an earlier article to Waagen's 

 views on the value of fossil animals as an aid to the classifi- 

 cation of the Carboniferous deposits, and the Continental 

 geologists are far ahead of us in the use they have made of 

 the invertebrata for this purpose, but British geologists are 

 waking up to the feeling that there is much work to be done 

 amongst the Carboniferous rocks of our islands, and it is to 

 be hoped that the British Association will give its official 

 recognition (if it has not already done so) to the desirability of 

 doing further work amongst these strata, by appointing a com- 

 mittee to study the distribution of their invertebrate remains. 

 It may be confidently predicted that, when this is done, very 

 considerable changes will be introduced amongst the time- 

 honoured lists of Carboniferous fossils found in our text-books. 

 Passing on to consider additions recently made to our 

 knowledge of the British Carboniferous rocks, we may 

 briefly allude to two papers written by Professor Boyd 

 Dawkins. As these treat of the interesting subject of 

 the extension of the Coal-Measures beneath the newer 

 rocks of Britain, a subject to which much attention was 

 paid at the recent meeting of the British Association at 

 Ipswich, it will be desirable ere long to devote a separate 

 article to this important question, and meanwhile we may 



