456 Appendix. 



when the woody fibre decays the resin should remain, but we have 

 still a difficulty as to the oily matter, which has not yet, so far as 

 we remember, been found in ordinary peat. 1 



The most important work undertaken by Mr. Binney, and 

 carried out with great pertinacity so far as he could spare time 

 from his business, was the explanation of the position which the 

 principal coal plants have to each other. A most important 

 feature in the inquiry was the proof that the so-called Stigmaria 

 were the roots of the Sigillaria and also of allied genera such as 

 the Lepidodendron. The discovery of a number of specimens 

 new to geologists put him in a peculiarly favourable position, and 

 this position he held for many years, whilst he somewhat slowly 

 produced his description. It is from these, his most elaborate, 

 as well as somewhat late papers, that we shall cull extracts, giving 

 in his own words the position which he claimed for himself. 



Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society, Manchester, 

 Vol. VIII. New Series. III. On the Origin of Coal. Read 

 December i, 1846, by E. W. Binney. 



Page 172. 'The long processes radiating in quincuncial order 

 from the Stigmaria to a considerable distance did not allow of its 

 being so easily drifted, therefore it was allowed to have grown in 

 the position where it is found, and called an aquatic plant. As it 

 was always met with in the coal floors, it was supposed to have 

 been a kind of harbinger of dry land, filling up, by its rapid growth, 

 the swamps until a bed of soil was formed for the growth of the 

 larger trees, like the Sigillaria, &c. This view was taken by many 

 authors, who represented the vegetable matter, now forming coal, 

 to have grown on the spots where it is now found on dry land.' 



Page 173. 'As before stated, the seams of coal are generally 

 found lying upon a fine deposit of hardened clay or silt, indicating 

 great quietude in its formation, and scarcely any trace of a current. 



1 The author gave this view in < A Study of Peat,' Mem. Lit. and Phil. 

 Soc. vol. v. 3rd series, p. 330. He has also shown that the resinous of 

 hydro-carbonaceous matter can be found in the mosses from which the peat 

 was formed, 



