324 Dr. J. W. Dawson on Spore-cases in Coals. 



mustarcl-sceds [S2)orangitea glabra of my papers) in tlie rocks 

 of Horton Bluff and Lower Hortou, Nova Scotia. They are 

 sometimes globular, and filled with pyrites of a granular tex- 

 ture, which perhaps represents the original cellular structure 

 or the microspores ; in other cases they are flattened, and con- 

 stitute thin carbonaceous layers. They are, almost without 

 doubt, the spore-cases of Lepidodendron corrugatum^ which 

 abounds in the same beds, and constitutes in one place a forest 

 of erect stumps. I described them in a paj>er on the Lower 

 Carboniferous of Nova Scotia, in the * Proceedings of the 

 Geological Society of London ' for 1858, though not then 

 aware of their true nature, which, however, was recognized 

 by Dr. Hooker in some specimens which I had sent to 

 London. 



In my paper on the conditions of accumulation of Coal 

 (Proc. Geol. Soc. London, May 186G), I proposed the name 

 of Sporaagites for these bodies, in consequence of the difficulty 

 of referring them certainly to any generic forms. Carruthers 

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

 cases of not dissimilar type, under the name of Fhmingites. 

 In the paper above referred to, 1 stated that, out of eighty-one 

 coals of the South-Joggins section examined by me, I re- 

 cognized these bodies and other fruits or sporangia in only 

 sixteen ; and of these only four had the rounded Lycopodia- 

 ceous spore-cases similar to those of Fhmingites. These are 

 the following : — 



1. Coal-group 12, of Division IV., has a bed of coal 1 foot 

 thick, of which some layers are almost wholly composed of 

 Sporangites pajnUata. 



2. Coal-group 13, Div. IV., has in some layers great quan- 

 tities of Sporangites glabra, especially in the slialy part of the 

 coal. 



3. In Coal-group 14, Div. IV., a shaly parting contains 

 great numbers of similar sporangites. 



4. In coal-group 15 a, 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 segre- 

 gative structures. 



The great coal-beds of Pictou are, 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 



