4 Arber, Fossil Plants from the Ardwick Series. 



Fossil plants from the Manchester Coalfield have 

 been recorded by Williamson, Phillips, J. W. Salter, and 

 especially by E. W. Binney. It has been thought, however, 

 that several of these are worthy of fuller description, and 

 that a revision of the determinations would be an ad- 

 vantage, for a considerable interval has now elapsed since 

 the collections were made. The increase in our knowledge 

 of Carboniferous plants during the last forty years has 

 been so great that several of the original determinations 

 have proved to be inconclusive. The revision of the 

 nomenclature has also made it possible to compare this 

 flora more accurately with that of other districts, and to 

 throw light on the position of the Manchester Coalfield in 

 the Upper Carboniferous. Further, the increase in the 

 size of the City of Manchester during the last few decades, 

 and the fact that both the limestones and coals, formerly 

 largely worked, are now nearly, or entirely, exhausted,^ 

 makes it improbable that further specimens will be 

 obtained except under very exceptional circumstances. 



Of the collections which I have examined, that of the 

 late E. W. Binney is the most complete. It was presented 

 to the Woodwardian (now known as the Sedgwick^) 

 Museum, Cambridge, by Mr. J. Binney, in 1892, together 

 with a large and historic collection of sections of Carboni- 

 ferous plants, and other specimens. Most, but not all, of 

 the Ardwick specimens recorded by Binney have been 

 recognised. 



I am unaware of the whereabouts of the specimens 



^ I am informed by Mr. Mark Stirrup, to whom I am much indebted 

 for information concerning this coalfield, that the limestones are no longer 

 worked, and that apparently only one coal mine is at present working, and 

 that in a somewhat doubtful horizon. 



^ The University Geological collections at Cambridge, formerly known 

 as the Woodwardian Museum, have recently been removed to new buildings 

 erected to the memory of Adam Sedgwick, which will be known as the 

 Sedgwick Memorial Museum 



