TRAJfSACTIOKS OB- SECTION C. 627 



Halifax Soft Bed (coal) 10 



Shales, &c , 30 - 



Bottom coal .......... q 



Eoughrock * J3ase. 



The two thickest beds, and indeed, the only workable beds of this series are 

 those known as the Halifax Soft Bed, which is about 18 inches thick, and' the 

 Halifax Hard Seam, which averages about 2 feet 3 inches. The latter bed is 

 covered by some 10 feet of shales containing- nodules, locally known as ' bauni 

 pots,' which are composed chieHy of carbonate of lime with a smaller amount of 

 carbonate of mngnesin, oxide and sulphide of iron, sulphates of soda and potasli, 

 and silica ; the nodular concretions are very hard, and often coated with iron 

 pyrites. When they are broken up they are usually found to contain fossil shells 

 (Xautilus, Orthoceras, Goniatites, Aviculopecten, &c.). Sometimes also fish-scales' 

 and fossil-wood (Dadoxylon). The bed underlying these shales is the Halifax 

 Hard Semi, and consists of an impure coal containing numerous nodules of sim"ilar 

 composition to those which are found in the overlying shales, but containing in 

 the place of fossil-shells the remains of plants only. These remains consist of 

 stems, roots, rootlets, branchlets, sporangia, spores, &c., mixed together confusedly ; 

 but so exquisitely is the minute structure preserved, that on preparing thin sections 

 of portions of the ' coal balls ' for microscopic examination the most delicate oro-ans 

 are exhibited as clearly as in the section of a recent plant : the cell-walls of°the 

 tissues having been carbonised, and their cells themselves filled with carbonate of 

 lime. 



The great number of new forms, described from this bed bv Professor W. C. 

 Williamson, have thrown no small light on some of the difficult problems of 

 Carboniferous Pakeo-botany. 



Among the most important organisms found in this bed the followino- may be 

 cited :— - ° 



Astromyelon, Asterophyllites, Calamostachys Binneyana, Calamites, Lepido- 

 dendron Harcourtii, Lepidodendron selaginoides, Favularia, Sigillaria, Sti"-mariffi 

 Lyginodendron, Dadoxylon, Diplyoxylon, Kaloxylon Hookeri, Rachiopteris'cluplex' 

 E. Oldhamia, R. cylindrica, E. aspera, R. Lacattii, E. tridentata, Cardio-carpon' 

 Lagenostoma ovoides, Oidospora anomala, Sporocarpon tubulatum, Traquaria 

 Peronosporites antiquarius, Stomata (possibly of Cordaites?) &c. &c. ' 



Perhaps the last addition of interest to this important local fossil florals a fra-^- 

 ment of a fossilised stem or branchlet which differs in some important particulars 

 from anything previously met with. It consists of a central pith surrounded by a 

 narrow zone of vascular or fibro-vascular tissue, outside which is a cambium rino- 

 followed by a comparatively thick cortex. This cortex has a very peculiar oro-am- 

 zation, which, among living plants, is only met with in such" aquatic forms as 

 Mi/nophi/llum, Utricularia, and a few others. The cortical structures of the fossil 

 specimen agree most with those of MyriophyUum ; and tliough in the present state of 

 fossil botany we dare not suggest an affinity between them, it is at least deservino- 

 of record, that the organization of this stem bears a very close resemblance to the 

 stem of a plant which ranks so high in the vegetable kingdom. In honour of 

 Professor W. C. Williamson, F.E.S., who has done so much to elucidate the 

 organization of Carboniferous plants, Mr. Hick and I propose to desiimate our 

 specimen MyrwphyUoides WilUamsoni. ° 



6. Researclies in Fossil Botany. By James Spencer, 



During last winter I discovered two new spore-bearing capsules in the coal-ball 

 material of the Halifax coal strata. 



1. One of these contained some of the spores described by Professor W. C 

 Williamson, under the name of Zygosporites brevipes. 



This sporangium forms another"link in the history of these remarkable spores 

 and indicates that they are of lycopodaceous origin, and that they probably belonir 

 to some unknown form of Lepidodendroid plant. 



s s 2 



