ARTICLE VIII. 
Notice of Fossil Arborescent Ferns, of the Family of Sigillaria, and other Coal Plants, 
exhibited in the Roof and Floor of a Coal Seam, in Dauphin County, Pennsylania, 
by Richard C. Taylor, F. G. S. &c. Read May 30th, 1843. 
I am desirous of placing on record a description of certain remarkably developed 
specimens of vegetable fossils, of great magnitude, which have come under my observa- 
tion, in the most southern of our Pennsylvania Coal Fields. It is not often that pre- 
sentations, on such a scale, can be studied so advantageously as in the present instanee. 
I willingly admit, that they merit description from a much more accomplished naturalist 
than myself. 
Those now about to be described are, or were, displayed during the progress of work- 
ing a Gallery or Drift, several hundred feet in length,* in a Coal bed to which the name 
of “Perseverance Vein” has been given. Its position is towards the western extremity 
of the Schuylkill Coal Field, thirteen miles east from the Susquehanna River. 
I should have felt less disposition to enter upon this task, had detailed descriptions of 
interesting exposures of coal vegetation, on an enlarged scale,—acquired during the pro- 
gress of practical operations, in our mines,—been more frequently furnished to science. 
For illustrations of this instructive character, we in vain search among authorities which 
are recognised as of the very highest scientific reputation. Their specimens, selected 
for illustration, generally represent but a minute section, a mere fragment of these 
gigantic plants, and are limited to the exhibition of the characters of their bark or of 
their leaves. But these samples transmit to us no conceptions of the actual scale, the 
true magnitude, to which this magnificent flora attains; any more than a single brick 
conveys an adequate idea of the architecture of a building. 
M. A. Brougniart, himself the author of a standard treatise on fossil vegetables, became 
fully aware of the necessity for calling the geologists to his aid; ere he could perfect the 
splendid work which he has communicated to the scientific world.t “No one knows 
better than myself,” he exclaims, “the difficulties inherent to such a subject, and the 
imperfections, impossible to avoid, which may be found in the work which I publish. 
This work will present only the first rough sketch of the vegetation of the ancient world ; 
* Length of excavation, five hundred and fifty-eight feet. 
t Histoire des Vegétaux Fossiles par M. Adolphe Brougniart. 
