344 FOSSIL PLANTS IN COAL-PITS. 



under publication by Professor Lindley and Mr. Hutton. 

 The plants of the Bohemian Coal-field laid the foundation of 

 Count Sternberg's Flore du 7nonde primitif, the publication 

 of which commenced at Leipsic and Prague in 1820. 



Lindley and Hutton state (Fossil Flora, Vol. I. page 16) 

 that " It is the beds of shale, or argillaceous schistus, which 

 afford the most abundant supply of these curious relics of a 

 former World ; the fine particles of which they are com- 

 posed having sealed up and retained in wonderful perfec- 

 tion, and beauty, the most delicate forms of the vege- 

 table organic structure. Where shale forms the roof of 

 the workable seams of coal, as it generally does, we have 

 the most abundant display of fossils, and this, not perhaps 

 arising so much from any peculiarity in these beds, as from 

 their being more extensively known and examined than any 

 others. The principal deposite is not in immediate contact 

 with the coal, but about from twelve to twenty inches 

 above it ; and such is the immense profusion in this situa- 

 tion, that they are not unfrequently the cause of very serious 

 accidents, by breaking the adhesion of the shale bed, and 

 causing it to separate and fall, when by the operation of 

 the miner the coal which supported it is removed. After 

 an extensive fall of this kind has taken place, it is a curious 

 sight to see the roof of the mine covered with these vegeta- 

 ble forms, some of them of great beauty and delicacy ; and 

 the observer cannot fail to be struck wath the extraordinary 

 confusion, and the numerous marks of strong mechanical 

 action exhibited by their broken and disjointed remains." 



A similar abundance of distinctly preserved vegetable 

 remains, occurs throughout the other Coal fields of Great 

 Britain. But the finest example I have ever witnessed, is 

 that of the coal mines of Bohemia just mentioned. Tiie 

 most elaborate imitations of Kving foliage upon the painted 

 ceilings of Italian palaces, bear no comparison with the 

 beauteous profusion of extinct vegetable forms, with which 

 the galleries of these instructive coal-mines are overhung^ 



