42 



No less than 33 species of shoUs, besides fish and cncrinital remains, 

 have been identified in these beds. 



In this very brief outline I have endeavoured to lay before you the most 

 salient points in the basin which we are now overlooking, and I sincerely trust 

 that the members of the Cardiff club wiU work out in their domain many 

 hitherto imi-avelled questions on the Coal Formation. 



The address was listened to throughout with vei-y great interest, and on 

 its conclusion the route was continued for PontypooL A straight road, three 

 miles along the ridge of the hill, leads to the town — but there was an abundance 

 of dust upon it and a hedge on either side — so when a deep dingle appeared it 

 ■was irresistable, and down its sides they went. It proved to be the " Cwm- 

 ffrwdor" or the valley of the Coldbrook, and a charming valley it was, clothed 

 ■with underwood, ■with ever-changing views, and a brook with as pleasant a noise 

 as one would well wish to hear on a hot day. Its water, however, was not 

 drinkable, it was muddy itself, and coated the stones it ran over -with iron 

 oxides. 



The dingle was really beautifully leafy, and looked hopeful though 

 watered by a stream whose turbid current was not at all comjiarable to that of 

 Ilissus or the sparkling fountain described in such brilliant terms by Horace. 

 However, in this glen, and beside a stream once probably pure with mountain 

 freshness, there were seated several plants worthy of note, if not of the rarest 

 kind ; and the Ferns especially clustered there, sxiggestive of a descent from their 

 progenitors of the Carboniferous Limestone ; and here Pobjpodium Dryopteris 

 floui'ished in abundance, and the pretty Beech-fern (P. jjhcr/opteris) was almost 

 in equal plenty ; while Lcistrcca dilafata, and the elegant Lady-fern (Athyriwm 

 filix-fcemina) grew in great beauty and luxuriance, as well as Blechnum horeale in 

 scattered tufts. There was also a variety of L. dilatata, with reciirved pinnules, 

 that excited some discussion and difference of opinion, and the fern-lovers took 

 the opportunity to fill their vasculums to repletion. A few other plants were 

 also noticed here among the bushes, as the Vaccinium myrtiUus in young fruit, 

 Hypericum duhium, and a considerable quantity of the blue-flowered Jasione 

 monfana. Brambles were already in flower close upon the footsteps of the 

 Hoses, and some of the rarer ones met the view of the critical student of Kubi. 

 These were JRubus subercctiis, seldom seen but in sub-alpine places, B. ferox 

 and B. carpinifolius, while the Raspberry (B. Idccus) appeared to be quite 

 common. Some other general plants were perhaps rather too much in the 

 ascendsnt even here, as Orchis maculata and Carduus palustris. The rarest 

 plant gatliered on this excursion was the umbelliferous Myrrhis odorata, which 

 Mr. E. Lees found growng in some quantity in a spot near the entrance of 

 Cwmffrwdor, and which is a plant mostly confined to "pastures in hilly 

 districts." 



