294. 
undescribed cone from the Carboniferous Beds of Airdrie, 
Lancashire,” and, referring to the occurrence of spores in coal, 
says, (p. 434) “not only do these bodies exist in quantity in 
many coals, but some beds even of considerable thickness are 
almost entirely made up of them. Their relation, however, to 
any organism that could have produced them was unknown 
until the discovery of a cone by Mr James Russexy.” This 
cone was submitted to Mr Carruruers, who described it as a 
new genus under the name of Flemingites, and allied it to the 
modern family of Lycopodiee. It would therefore appear that 
Mr Carrurners included in this genus all the spores discovered 
in coal up to that time. It seems, however, that all previous 
observers had fallen into an error in supposing that the coal- 
forming plant possessed but one kind of spore, namely 
microspores. This Professor J. 8. Bennett, in his paper “ An 
Investigation into the Structure of the Torbarehill Mineral and 
of various kinds of Coal,” * refers to the microspores as “‘rings 
of a transparent yellowish or reddish colour, with an opaque 
centre ;” + and, referring to the macrospores, says, “ there 
are also visible circles or rings of a rich golden yellow matter, 
much larger, and varying in size from the 50th to the 60th of 
an inch, which have been described by some as seeds or spore 
cases.” His conclusions as to the structure of coal are “that 
the various organic appearances found in the sections and ashes 
of coal are explicable by the supposition that coal is wood 
chemically altered, and for the most part coniferous wood, or 
wood allied to it in structure.” Professor J. H. Batrour, in 
his paper{ “On certain Vegetable Organisms found in coal 
from Fordel,’? mentions the occurrence of seed-like bodies 
which he considers “‘ to be the sporangia or spore cases of some 
plant allied to Lycopodium, perhaps Sigillaria.” Later on, in 
1872, Prof. Batrour refers § his coal spores, and those which 
* Trans. Royal Society Edinburgh, Vol. X XI, p. 173 (185-34.) 
+ From the plates illustrating Prof. BENNETT’s paper I should judge 
that his sections were not made sufficiently transparent to enable him to 
judge fairly of the spores and true structure of the coal examined. 
t Proc. Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. X XI, p. 191. 
§ Paleontological Botany, description of, Plate III, Fig. 1. 
