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Monday, 20^A February 1854. 



JOHN RUSSELL, Esq., P.C.S., in the Chair. 



The following Communications were read : — 



1. Account of the Proceedings of the Conference held at 

 Brussels in August and September last, for establishing 

 a uniform system of Meteorological Observations in the 

 Vessels of all Nations, and of the arrangements proposed 

 io be made for conducting the results of the Observations 

 taken on Land with those taken at Sea. By Captain H. 

 James, R.E., F.R.S, &;c. Communicated by James Wil- 

 son, Esq. 



2. On certain Vegetable Organisms found in Coal from 

 Fordel. By Professor Balfour. 



The author stated that the coal to which he called attention was 

 found at Fordel collieries, near Inverkeithing*, Fife, and that he was 

 indebted for specimens of it to Mr Robert Daw, comptroller of cus- 

 toms at Leith. It is a splint coal, and exhibits numerous vegetable 

 impressions, particularly of Sigillaria and Stigmaria. These plants 

 appear, indeed, the author thought, to have formed the main sub- 

 stance of the coal, as shown not only by its external appearance, but 

 also by its microscopical structure. Cellular and woody tissue have 

 long been recognised in coal ; but from what is now seen in the 

 Fordel and other varieties, it would appear that scalariform and dotted 

 tissue are often present, and, moreover, that in some instances peculiar 

 dotted vessels have been mistaken for true punctated woody tissue. 

 Elongated cavities, containing yellow and orange-coloured matter, 

 also occur in Fordel coal. These cavities did not appear to be woody 

 tubes, from which they differed in their form and arrangement, as well 

 as in occasionally branching. They seemed in this, as in many other 

 coals, to be more of the character of intercellular spaces or canals. 

 The coal from Fordel also contains numerous specimens of seed-like 

 bodies, which appear to be sporangia, allied to those of Lycopodiacese. 

 These bodies have a rounded form ; their colour is dark-brown, and 

 they seem to be formed by two valves, which are occasionally sepa- 

 rated. When one of the valves is removed, there is frequently ob- 



