242 HE. A. Newell Arber—Fossil Plants, Gloucester Coal-field. 
Hills by John Phillips.1 So far as I am aware no additions have been 
made to our knowledge on this subject since 1848. 
I have for some years past been occupied with a study of the 
distribution of fossil plants in the Forest of Dean, which lies roughly 
between the Newent and Bristol Coal-fields. The flora of the Bristol 
Coal-field has recently been extended and revised by my friend and 
former pupil Mr. Lillie.? My attention was thus naturally turned to 
the Newent tract, and after some correspondence with Dr. Theodore 
Groom, who, I understand, will shortly publish a paper including 
a geological study of this part of Gloucestershire, I visited the 
district last October with a view to collecting such plant remains as 
could be obtained. JI found, as I had anticipated, that there are 
practically no exposures of the Coal-measures at the present time 
which offer any opportunity for collecting fossil plants. I had, 
however, the good fortune to secure the co-operation of Mr. I. Rogers, 
of Bideford, who very kindly spent some days with me at Newent, 
and, to his exceptional skill as a collector, such specimens as we were 
able to obtain are largely due. To him I owe many thanks. I have 
also to express my. indebtedness to a grant from the Government 
Grant Committee of the Royal Society for defraying the expenses of 
the field-work. 
It fortunately happened that, shortly before my visit, a well had 
been sunk at Great Boulsden, about 90 feet deep, on the exact site 
of the old abandoned workings for coal in this locality. The upper 
6 feet, I was told, consisted of red rocks, no doubt Trias, and the 
rest of the section appeared to be Coal-measures. JI was also 
informed that no seam of coal had been passed through, but that it 
was expected that the coal would be reached at a depth of about 
120 feet. At the time when I discovered this sinking, the heap of 
debris thrown out of the well had unfortunately become badly 
weathered, partly owing no doubt to the wet nature of last summer. 
The shales were thus extremely soft and very fragmentary. Collecting 
was performed by means of the blade of a penknife. However, after 
several days work, Mr. Rogers and I managed to obtain a few 
specimens which could be determined specifically, and which will 
be discussed here. 
I may perhaps mention that, through the kindness of Mr. O. T. Price 
of Boulsden Croft, Newent, I obtained some interesting information 
as to the year in which the coal was first worked at Boulsden, which 
does not appear to have been known to those who have written on the 
geology of this district. Mr. Price showed me a copy of the Gloucester 
Journal for April 26, 1890, in which there was an article recalling 
the excitement due to the discovery of coal at Boulsden one hundred 
years previously. Quotations from the Hereford Journal of July 7 
and 14, 1790, were cited in which it was stated that coal had been 
~ raised and burnt in Hereford and Gloucester during the summer of 
that year. The cost then was 16s. a load. Apparently the enterprise 
did not prove profitable, for the shafts appear to have been abandoned 
a few years later. 
1 J. Phillips, ‘‘ The Malvern Hills’: Mem. Geol. Sury., 1848, vol. ii, pf. i. 
* D. G. Lillie, Guot. Mac., 1910, Dec. V, Vol. VII, p. 58. 
