ig6 REMINISCENCES OF 



memory before replying to my correspondent, I 

 hunted for and, with some difficulty, found my nine 

 sections mentioned on a previous page. On study- 

 ing them, and comparing them with Mr. Binney's 

 figures and the descriptions of his Calamites, I soon 

 found that the two did not agree. M. Grand' Eury 

 became, and up to the present day continues to be, 

 one of my most valued foreign correspondents. 

 Further references to his work will follow pre- 

 sently. 



The discrepancies between Mr. Binney's descrip- 

 tions of Calamites and my sections led me to devote 

 some time to a careful study of the question. It 

 soon became clear to me that his specimens and 

 mine belonged to two distinct modifications of the 

 Calamitean type. Hence I resolved to prepare a 

 memoir on my examples. This, when done, was 

 published in the fourth volume of the third series of 

 Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 

 Manchester. 



But, before referring further to the views ad- 

 vanced in that memoir, a much larger question 

 requires to be considered, viz., the amount of know- 

 ledge which the geologist had attained to respecting 

 the plants of the carboniferous age. 



A considerable number of writers in various parts 

 of the world had already called attention to a limited 

 number of isolated facts bearing on the subject, but 

 these facts were as yet too few to make broad and 

 philosophical conclusions on the matter possible. 



