Cash: The Fossil Plants of the Yorkshire Cool Measures. 117 



Binns and Spencer were not content to be mere collectors, 

 they proceeded to sectionise their specimens, and to prepare 

 them for microscopic study ; and the material from the Halifax 

 Hard Bed enabled them to most successfully assist in the 

 interpretation of the relationships of fossil plants to their 

 modern descendants. Of the men of whom we now write it 

 may be said, in the words of the late Professor Craik, ' Want 

 of leisure, want of instructors, want of books, poverty, un- 

 congenial and distracting- occupations, the force of opposing 

 example, the discouragement of friends, all separately or in 

 various combinations, exerted their influence either to check 

 their pursuit of knowledge, or to prevent the very desire of it 

 from springing up. But they opposed the force of their strong 

 natural passion and upward tending determination in vain.' 



We doubt not there are similar men yet among us who will 

 take up and continue the good work so faithfully initiated, whilst 

 others more fortunately situated, and with greater advantages 

 of culture, and with wider opportunities, may well also con- 

 tribute their quota to the further extension of our knowledge in 

 this fascinating department of natural science. 



It is now recognised amongst scientific botanists that the 

 value of a fossil plant is enormously enhanced by exact and 

 accurate information as to the actual bed from which it was 

 taken, and the name of the pit and of the locality where it was 

 found ; it is only by the accumulation of a large amount of 

 information of this character that important generalisations as 

 to the distribution of fossils can be arrived at. 



It is our intention in these pages to suggest in plain and 

 simple language the best methods of collecting fossil plants, of 

 recognising and naming the species and genera, of accurately 

 recording the results of work done, and of indicating how and 

 where assistance and guidance may be found for beginners and 

 students. 



The Collection and Preservation of Specimens. — Fossils 

 may be said to occur : — 



1. As Incrustations. 



2. As Petrifactions. 



Under the head of Incrustations come the common and 

 generally known forms, such as impressions on shales and sand 

 stones, or in nodules of clay ironstone, and casts, where as in a 

 mould a model of the once living plant has been left (though the 

 organism itself perished long ago), and is now represented by a 

 mass of sand or of some mineral substance. Petrifactions are 



1906 April I. 



