408 Transactions of the Society. 



Claycross, five miles soutli of CliesterficlJ. In this case it is clear 

 tiiat the base of the trees rested upon a scam of co-al 15 inches 

 thick. The stems anil upper i^rtion of the roots are described as 

 "standing above the coal," and Mr. Bowman explains this by 

 reference to similar phenomena in peat marshes, in which the base 

 of the trunks of ancient forest trees stand with the roots exposed, 

 owing to the shrinkage of the surrounding peat. But the })eat, 1 

 must here point out. is not formed by these forest trees, but from 

 the bog-mosses. The inference, then, to be drawn from these trees 

 is, it seems to me, that the seam of coal was formed from bog 

 growth, and that the Sujillaria? grew in the bog, as conifers and 

 other trees do at the present time in modern bogs. 



The third paper was by Sir William Logan (then Mr. Logan), 

 " On the character of the beds of clay lying immediately below the 

 coal seams of South Wales ; and on the occurrence of coal-boulders 

 in the Pennant Grit of that district." ''.rhis is the well-known 

 paper in which it was pointed out that immediately below every 

 regular seam of coal in South Wales there existed a bed of under- 

 clay in which was always to be found the fossil vegetable Stlgmaria. 

 This fossil was afterwards proved by Mr. Binney, and others, to be 

 tbe root of the Lepidodendroid plants generally. The discovery of 

 Sir William Logan, together with the finding of trees growing 

 in situ and their remains associated with those of terrestrial 

 growths in the roof shales over seams of coal, led to the belief 

 that coal was the result of the decay of submerged forests. In 

 support of this statement, 1 may quote Mr. Carruthers, who is 

 a well-known authority on the matter. Mr. Carruthers expressed 

 his opinion in the course of some remarks on a pa])er which 1 com- 

 municated to the Geological Society.* " Coal seams," he said, 

 " are tbe remains of forests which grew upon swampy ground, and 

 Nvere subsequently covered by clay." 



The first persons to make microsc ipic sections of coal, so far as 

 I am aware, were Professors J. H. Bennett and J. Quekett, and 

 it is interesting to observe their conclusions. The former pub- 

 lished his in a paper t entitled " Investigations into the structure 

 of the Torlmnehill mineral," and says, " Tl:e various organic 

 appearances found in the sections and ash of coal is wood chemi- 

 cally altered, and for the most part coniferous, or wood allied to it 

 in structure." I fjhall presently show that Professor Bennett pro- 

 bably mistook microspores for rings seen in coniferous wood. 

 Professor J. Quekett says,t "My investigations, however, lead me 

 to believe that the basis of coal is essentially a peculiar kind of 

 wood, and that when Ferns, Stigniaria, and Lepiclodendra, and 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Snc, xl. p. 5'J. 



t Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgli, xxi. (1853-4) p. 173. 



X Traus. Micr. Hoc. Ldiul., 1854, p. 40. 



