ON THE FLORA OF CARDONIFEBOUS ROCKS. 69 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor W. C. Williamson 

 (Chairman) and Mr. \V. Cash (Secretary), appointed to in- 

 vestigate the Flora of the Carboniferous Mocks of Lancashire 

 and West Yorkshire. (Drawn up by Professor W. C. William- 

 son.) 



On the present state of the Inquiry into the Microscopic Features of ih^ Coal 

 of the World, and into the Organisation of the Fossil Plants of the Coal- 

 Measures. 



In the year 1881 I determined to undertake the microscopic examination 

 of as many of the coals of the entire world as I could obtain. My chief 

 object was to learn how far such examinations would throw light upon 

 the origin and formation of these coals, and especially on the two dominant 

 features of the nature of the mineral charcoal contained in many of them, 

 and of the extent to which these coals contained the spores of cryptogamic 

 forms of vegetation. My applications, issued in various directions, for 

 specimens upon which to work, soon met with a noble response. The 

 time which could be devoted to the inquiry has been limited through 

 the prior claims of my inquiries into the organisation of the fossil plants 

 of the coal-measures. Nevertheless considerable progress has been 

 made. At the York meeting of the British Association in 1831 I made 

 a few preliminary observations on the results obtained up to that date 

 from the study of the coals of Eastern Scotland and of South Wales. 

 But since then much more work has been done, the coals from the 

 following coal-producing regions having been already investigated : — 



Eastern Scotland 



South Wales 



Forest of Dean 



Whitehaven 



Durham 



South Africa 



Japan 



New Zealand 



India 



Australia 



Sweden 



Arctic regions 



Nova Scotia 



Borneo 



Flintshire 



North Staffordshire 



Belgium, in part 



Sections — 271 in number — have been prepared of all the above coals, 

 ■with the exception of the two last, and the mineral charcoals of all these, 

 including the North Stafford and Belgian examples, have been studied. 

 Three thousand four hundred and fifty-nine (3,459) fragments of mineral 

 charcoal have been examined, and microscopic preparations of 211 of 

 the most characteristic of these are also stored in my cabinets. 



I have a definite object in making this personal communication. As 

 you must have already inferred, I have been under immense obligations 

 to many friends in various parts of the globe for the collection of the 

 materials upon which I have been working, and the cellars of my house 

 contain numerous still unopened cases from additional localities. Hearing 

 nothing in the way of results from their kind exertions, 1 am afraid that 

 some of those who have thus aided me may deem their labour thrown 

 away, and I am anxious to let them know that this is very far from being 

 the case. 



