79 
I have endeavoured to get information on the subject, but 
no collection appears to exist, and it is said that no Fossils are 
to be found, but this I must be pardoned for discrediting. 
The same idea has prevailed with regard to the steam coal 
seams above; the reason was, that few specimens are found 
immediately over the coal, but a foot or two above, and there 
they had not been looked for. 
From the examination of a Stone Quarry, at Kingswood, 
which lies in close proximity to the Ashton top seam, I have 
been able to get some light on the subject, but, as in the case 
of the Millstone grit, the chemical constituents of the stone 
have not been conducive to the preservation of organic remains ; 
there are the indications of a very abundant Flora, now repre- 
sented by moulds; they are chiefly those of a Calamite and 
Trigonocarpum. 
It is important that a knowledge of this Flora should be 
obtained, seeing that these coal seams are the only ones in the 
Bristol district which generate explosive gas, and it would be, 
at least, interesting to compare them with those of the non- 
explosive gas seams which follow. 
The first of these is the “‘Two Foot” seam, which is especially 
characterised by the occurrence of large Ulodendron Lindley- 
anum, also known as Botherodendron punctatum, but the latter 
name I think should be discontinued, as the tree is no doubt a 
species of Ulodendron, and the complication of names only 
tends to create confusion. Fine specimens of Lepidodendron 
Sternbergvi also occur, but they are not so numerous as the last. 
The thin end of these trees point towards the south-east, a 
circumstance which appears to indicate that the current which 
brought them down came from the north-west. 
Then there is Calamites ramosus tolerably abundant, and 
Cordaites. This latter has usually been considered to be foliage, 
but it appears to me to partake more of the natureofareed. By 
glancing at the table of the Flora we see the range of this 
genus is great; it is found over every seam in the district, so 
far as I have been able to ascertain, and always in great 
abundance. 
