478 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 
trustworthy records as exist we are chiefly indebted to Dr. Kidston and to his 
memoir published as far back as 1888. The number of species, the exact 
locality and horizon of which are recorded, is at present as follows :—Keele 
Series 16, Halesowen Sandstone Series 0, ? Brick Clay Series (Old Hill Marls) 
8, Productive Measures 27. 
For some time past I have been endeavouring to extend our knowledge of 
the fossil floras of this coalfield, and I have been fortunate in receiving the 
active co-operation of several geologists resident in Birmingham and the neigh- 
bourhood, who have most kindly formed collections from particular areas, and 
forwarded the specimens to me for examination and description. In this way. 
the material which I have myself been able to collect has been greatly extended. 
My thanks are in particular due to Mr. H. Kay, F.G.S., Mr. W. H. Foxall, 
F.R.G.S., Mr. W. H. Hardaker, M.Sc., and Mr. L. Jackson for their enthusiastic 
co-operation. 
Attention has been chiefly concentrated so far on the floras of the Brick 
Clays, and of the lowest beds of the Productive Measures on or about the horizon 
of the Bottom Coal. A considerable number of species have been obtained from 
both horizons, of which some are new records both to the coalfield and to 
Britain. This work is still in progress. Information has also been obtained as 
to the horizon and localities in which the petrified specimens, long known 
from this coalfield, occur, such information having been lost for many years past. 
In addition the first fossil plants from the Halesowen Sandstone Series have 
been unearthed by Mr. Kay, and here again both petrifactions and impressions 
occur. 
It is hoped that in course of time it will be possible to trace the floras 
systematically from the lowest to the highest beds of the coal measures of 
this coalfield. The material, however, has to be obtained as opportunity offers, 
and this preliminary note is intended merely to indicate the present progress of 
the work. 
3. On the Correlation of the Leicestershire Coalfield. 
By Rosert Dovatass Vernon, B.A., B.Sc., F.G.S. 
The following is a preliminary account of a study in the correlation of the 
coalfields of the eastern portion of the great Midland coal basin. The area 
in question includes the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire coalfield in the north, 
the Warwickshire coalfield in the south-west, and the Leicestershire coalfield 
which lies midway between the two. It is with the latter that we are here 
chiefly concerned. The Carboniferous rocks of Leicestershire include 
Carboniferous Limestone, Limestone Shales, Grits and Sandstones that have 
been referred on lithological evidence to the Millstone Grits, and, lastly, the 
Coal Measures. Such a sequence at once suggests a correlation with the 
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire type, but the presence of unusually thick 
seams of coal which split towards the north favours a comparison of the 
Middle Coal Measures of Leicestershire with those of Warwickshire. Finally, 
in the complete absence of the Transition Series and Upper Coal Measures and 
the presence of a complex fault system, the Leicestershire coalfield stands quite 
apart from either of its neighbours. 
For the detailed correlation of the Upper Carboniferous of these tectonic 
basins we have several independent criteria, both physical and paleontological, 
but strong theoretical objections may be urged against the use of physical 
criteria alone, and in practice it was found to be impossible to use either the 
important sandstones or the seams of coal in the correlation even of the eastern 
and western portions of the Leicestershire coalfield itself. 
The problem was then attacked from the paleontological side. Fossil plants 
proved of relatively little value in the sub-division of the Leicestershire 
sequence, because the lowest and the highest plant-bearing horizons both appear 
to fall within the Middle Coal Measures. The freshwater lamellibranchiata 
(Carbonicola and its allies) were equally unsatisfactory, so that the work finally 
resolved itself into a search for Marine Beds and an attempt to lay down their 
outcrops on the six-inch maps. 
Of the three more or less distinct districts into which the Leicestershire 
