GEOLOGY 



life. The vegetation of the period consisted largely of giant species of 

 cryptogamic plants allied to our modern tree ferns, horsetails, and club 

 mosses. To the first class belong the various Coal Measure ferns, such 

 as Spbenopteris, Neuropteris and Pecopteris ; to the second belongs the 

 genus Catamites, with jointed and finely-fluted stems. To the third 

 class belongs the Lepidodendron, the stems of which are covered with 

 scale-like markings. To this is closely allied the Sigi//aria, with seal- 

 like impressions on the broadly fluted trunk. Stigmaria is a root common 

 in the underclays of coal seams, and is so called on account of its pitted 

 and tuberculate surface. Specimens of all these plant remains may be 

 looked for in the beds of sandstone, shale and fireclay associated with 

 the coals, which themselves are made up of compressed beds of this 

 ancient vegetable growth. 



Of animal life specimens of bivalve shells, Anthracomya and Carboni- 

 co/a, the latter resembling our freshwater mussels, and also fish remains, 

 may be looked for in the same beds ; while the Spirorbis pusillus is 

 generally abundant in the limestones near the summit of the Coal 

 Measures. It is likely too that the limestones and some of the shale 

 bands may on careful search be found to contain small bivalved entomo- 

 straca such as Carbonia and Estberia. 



Permian. The so-called Lower Permian rocks occupy a broad 

 tract of country extending from Baxterley on the north to Kenilworth 

 on the south ; their eastern limit is formed by the ordinary Coal Meas- 

 ures which rise conformably from beneath them ; on the west, south, 

 and south-east the tract is bounded by Triassic rocks. 



The beds consist of about 2,000 feet of alternations of red, brown, 

 and purple sandstones and red marls, with impersistent bands of breccia 

 and conglomerate. According to Mr. Fox-Strangways, 1 sandstones are 

 conspicuous towards the base, and form a marked feature in the northern 

 part of the district, where they have been quarried at numerous local- 

 ities about Baddesley Ensor and Baxterley. 



The breccias and conglomerates are generally found in the lower 

 part of the series ; one band particularly well-marked occurs at about 

 the middle, and forms a bold escarpment at Corley. z They are made 

 up largely of pebbles of Carboniferous limestone and chert, among 

 which some of Silurian sandstone have been noted at Exhall. So rich 

 are they in limestone pebbles that they have been extensively quarried 

 and burnt for lime between Fillongley and Over Whitacre. 



The higher beds of the series occur between Coventry, Kenilworth, 

 and Warwick, and the sandstones may be seen in various quarries. The 

 beds hereabouts however appear to be largely composed of marls, for 

 near Warwick a boring passed through 700 feet of rock consisting 

 chiefly of marls and thin beds of sandstone. 8 



More recently a boring has been put down at Kenilworth for the 



1 'Geology of Atherstone,' Mem. Geol. Survey (1900), p. 28. 



* For breccias near Polesworth see H. T. Brown, Quart. Jount. Geol. Sue. xlv. (1889), i. 

 8 Howell, 'Warwickshire Coalfield,' ibid. (1859), p. 31. 



13 



