6 Arber, Fossil Plants from the Ardwick Series. 



Fragments oi Pecopteris and Asterophyllites* also occur in 

 these beds. From the " blue clay above black bass " a 

 Sphenophylliun, much like S. erosurn, was found, and 

 Stigmaria ficoides is noticed as occurring abundantly in 

 the seam of coal below the black bass. Eguisetum-f is 

 also recorded. 



In 1839 Murchison^ in his Silurian System, showed 

 the close identity of the flora of the Manchester Coal- 

 field with that of the coal measures near Shrewsbury, and 

 mentions a " leaf of a large Monocotyledonous plant " 

 from the latter coalfield, and that the same species occurs 

 " particularly in the Upper Coal Measures at Ardwick." 

 This plant is probably identical with that recorded by 

 Salter, and by Binney as Poacites, which, as will be seen 

 (p. 11), is an imperfect Calamitean pith-cast. Murchison 

 also quotes a letter from Professor Phillips^, who had 

 studied the Ardwick Series, apparently independently of 

 Williamson, and who gives a list of plants which is 

 practically identical with the earlier record, with the addi- 

 tion of a " leaf of a Monocotyledonous plant "f and " very 

 narrow Monocotyledonous leaves resembling Noggerathia 

 folio sa^X 



The next mention of fossil plants from this coalfield 

 is that in ^Binney's Sketch of the Geology of Manchester, 

 published in 1841. He records from the valley of the 

 Medlock in a bed of bind above the Main Limestone, 



Neuropteris cordata = N. Scheuchzeri Hofifm. 

 and most of the plants from Leebotwood and Ufifington, 

 in Shropshire*. The floors of the coals afford Stigmaria 

 ficoides, Calamites, and other plants. Very fine specimens 



* = Anmdaria. ^ — 1 Calamites. % — 'i Cordaites s^. 



1 Murchison ('39), p. 85. 



2 Murchison ibid., p. 88. 



^ Binney ('41)^, pp. 50 and 58. 

 * See Murchison ('39), ibid. 



