322 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1912 



not only obtain excellent examples of the species already 

 recorded, such as those figured on Plates XXXVII.-XXXIX., 

 but also add considerably to the known flora of the coalfield. 

 All that is required is a strong hammer and chisel, with a bag 

 for carrying the spoils. The waste-heaps, with their enormous 

 supply of shales (for the shales, and not the sandstones, yield 

 the best specimens) are infinitely more favourable for collecting 

 purposes than the roofs of the seams underground. It is thus 

 quite unnecessary to go " below ground." But it is extremely 

 important that the specimens obtained should be marked on 

 the spot, either with a diamond or a blue pencil, with the name 

 of the colliery, and that as soon as possible afterwards they 

 should be properly labelled as regards the exact locality. Hun- 

 dreds of specimens from the Forest of Dean exist in museums 

 in this country, which bear no record whatever, beyond the 

 name of the coalfield. For purposes of studying the distri- 

 bution, both vertical and lateral, of the plants of this coal- 

 field, such specimens are quite useless, for want of proper 

 labels. The names of the seam or seams worked at each col- 

 liery are very commonly known, or can be obtained from the 

 Crown office in Coleford. Thus, the name of the colliery on 

 a specimen implies that it came from one or other of a group 

 of coals worked by that particular colliery, or even in some 

 cases from a single seam. 



The plant-remains in the shales of the Forest are often 

 extremely well preserved, and well repay the labour of col- 

 lecting. They consist of casts or impressions of plants, the 

 plant itself having decayed away altogether, or become con- 

 verted into a thin film of coal. It is sometimes difficult to 

 expose the specimens fully, for the shales tend to split uneven- 

 ly, and many a good specimen has been broken in attempts to 

 unearth it. With a little experience, however, and some study 

 of the ways in which the rocks tend to split, this difficulty can 

 be overcome. All the shales do not contain plants, and many 

 of the large lumps found on the waste-heaps of the collieries 

 are quite barren. After some practice however, the eye 

 soon learns to detect those slabs which are full of plants, 

 either by some small fragment projecting, or by the exposed 



