I9I3.] STEVENSON— FORMATION OF COAL BEDS. 71 



changing more slowly, are still recognizable. These stems are found 

 in coals of all types and they are associated very commonly with 

 leaves. 



Lesquereux*"'^ asserted that Stigmaria occurs as frequently in 

 American as in European coals. In Greenup county of Kentucky, he 

 saw a cannel, 4 feet thick, containing such abundance of Flabellaria 

 and Stigmaria that he believed the coal to be composed of those 

 plants. In another, he found great numbers of Stigmaria and beau- 

 tiful impressions of Lcpidodcndron. Coal beds I. and XII. in 

 western Kentucky are composed in places, of flattened Stigmaria, 

 Calamites and Sigillaria with, in I., Lepidodendron. The Brecken- 

 ridge deposit is rich in fine impressions. Long ago, E. B. Andrews, 

 in writing of the Ohio and Kentucky cannels, said that Stigmaria 

 seemed to revel in the ooze which became cannel. Orton'^*' says that 

 the upper or bituminous portion of the Upper Mercer coal bed con- 

 tains " the most beautiful specimens of Stigmaria; nearly every mine 

 car contains what would be a prize in a geological museum." These 

 retain their lateral appendages. Many incidental, possibly accidental 

 references are found in other geological reports, but they give no 

 details. At the same time, they suffice to show that remains of trees 

 are recognizable in the coal of very many beds and that Stigmaria is 

 not confined to the lower part of the deposit, but occurs in all por- 

 tions in bituminous as well as in cannel. 



Dawson®^ examined carefully every coal bed exposed in the long 

 South Joggins section. Many deposits of inferior coal in Divisions 

 3 and 4 are composed of recognizable leaves and stems and there are 

 beds of clean bright coal containing Sigillaria, Cordaites and other 

 forms. The stems are almost invariably prostrate, but in one coal 

 bed he saw a coaly stump and an irregular layer of mineral charcoal, 

 " arising apparently from decay of similar stumps." In another bed, 

 composed of prostrate Sigillaria with Cordaites, etc., he found a 



*" L. Lesquereux, " Geology of Pennsylvania," 1858, Vol. II., p. 841 ; Third 

 Rep. Geol. Surv. Ky., 1857, pp. 529, 532, 548; Fourth Rep., ibid., 1861, pp. 342, 

 349, 368, 379, 40s, 412. 



" E. Orton, Jr., Ohio Geol Surv., Vol. V., 1884, p. 850. 



'"]. W. Dawson, "Acadian Geology," 2d ed., pp. 159, 162, 168, 171, 173, 

 174, 190, 438. 



