On Sjpore-cases in Coals. 93 



their true nature, which was, however, recognized by Dr. Hooker in 

 some specimens which I had sent to London. 



In my paper " On the Conditions of Accumulation of Coal," * I 

 proposed the name Sjporangites for these bodies, in consequence of 

 the difficulty of referring them certainly to any generic forms. Car- 

 ruthers had, in Oct. 1865, described a cone containing rounded spore- 

 cases of not dissimilar type, under the name Flemingites. In the 

 paper above referred to, I stated that out of eighty-one coals of the 

 South Joggins Section examined by me, I recognized these bodies 

 and other fruits or sporangia in only sixteen ; and of these only four 

 had the rounded Lycopodiaceous spore-cases similar to those of 

 Flemingites. These are the following: — 



(1.) Coal group 12, of Division IV., has a bed of coal one foot 

 thick, of which some layers are almost wholly composed of Sjpo- 

 rangites papillaia. 



(2.) Coal group 13, Div. IV., has in some layers great quantities 

 of Sporangiies glabra, especially in the shaly part of the coal. 



(3.) In Coal group 14, Div. IV., a shaly parting contains great 

 numbers of similar sporangites. 



(4.) In Coal group 15a, Div. IV., the shaly roof abounds in 

 sporangites, but I did not observe them in the coal itself. 



In addition to these cases, all of which curiously enough occur 

 in one part of the section, and among the smaller coals, I have noted 

 the occurrence of clear amber spots in several of the compact coals, 

 but I did not regard these as certainly organic, suspecting them to 

 be rather concretionary or segregative structures. 



The great coal beds of Pictou are, in so far as my observation 

 has extended, remarkably free from indications of spore-cases, and 

 consist principally of cortical and ligneous tissues with layers of 

 finely comminuted vegetable matter. A layer of cannel, however, 

 from a bed near New Glasgow has numerous flattened amber-coloured 

 disks, which may be of this character. In those of Cape Breton, 

 the yellow spore-case-like spots are much more abundant ; but these 

 coals I have less extensively examined than those of the mainland 

 of Nova Scotia. Of American coals, the richest in spore-cases, that 

 I have seen, is a specimen from Ohio, which contains many large 

 spore-cases, and vast numbers of more minute globular bodies 

 apparently macrospores. It quite equals in this respect some of the 

 English coals referred to by Huxley. I have also a specimen of 

 anthracite from Pennsylvania, full of spore-cases, some of them 

 retaining their round form and filled with granular matter which 

 may represent the spores. 



It is not improbable that sporangites or bodies resembhng them, 

 may be found in most coals ; but the facts above stated indicate 

 that their occurrence is accidental, rather than essential to coal accu- 



* ' Proceedings of Geological Society of London,' May, 1866. 



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