102 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Position. — Calciferous Sandstone Series, near the Wardie 

 Shales. 



Contents. — Lagenicula I.^ 



Natuee and Condition of the Beds from which the 

 Spores have been collected. 



I. Coals. — The Splint and Parrot Coals (if not the only) 

 are the chief kinds which have yielded spores. 



The Soft or Cherry Coals in which the process of bituminisa- 

 tion has been carried to any considerable extent, cannot be 

 expected to yield well-preserved spores, as, being thoroughly 

 mineralised, the vegetable tissue of which they are composed 

 has been converted into a pure amorphous bitumen or carbon. 

 Splint coals being chiefly composed of compressed vegetable 

 tissue, are the chief spore-yielding coals ; while Parrot Coals, 

 consisting largely of mud or clay, highly charged with liquid 

 bitumen or comminuted carbon, have also yielded spores in 

 considerable numbers. When either of these coals i^ fresh, 

 great difQculty is experienced in extracting the spores, the 

 cohesion of the mass being so great, that the spores can only 

 be liberated by mechanical means, such as crushing small 

 splinters with pincers, or striking them smartly edgewise 

 with a hammer. In these cases the yield is, however, so 

 small, that little success has attended this mode of procuring 

 isolated specimens. 



The most convenient way of procuring spores from coal is 

 to collect specimens from the outcrops where, through long 

 exposure to the weather, the coal has become rotten or dis- 

 integrated, in which condition the spores are easily liberated 

 by crushing the material with the hand. The spores can 

 then be conveniently separated by the usual processes of 

 washing and floating, as adopted for the recovery of small 

 fossils from shale or clay. 



II. Fireclays. — As all fireclays are probably old soils, 

 every likely bed should be examined for spores. As a rule, 

 the thinner beds have yielded them most readily and most 



^ Note. — Carboniferous fossil macrospores have been found in layers of sand 

 between beds of brick -clay, at the Abercorn Brickworks, Portobello, Mid- 

 lothian, 



