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Zoolog 



V 



OCT n 1945 



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YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS UNION. 



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T29 



The YORKSHIRE CARBONIFEROUS 



FLORA. 



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V 



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FIFTH REPORT. 



On JlRnAFl- OF TIIR ^'ORKSIITKE FoSSIL FLORA CoMMITTRL, 



FOl 



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1895. 



By ROBERT KIDSTON, F.R.ST-:., F.G.S. 



Since the Fourih Report was laid Ix'forc the members of 

 the Yorkshire Naturah'sts' Union in 1S92, very httle has been 

 done in carryin^L;- out tlic ol.)ject for which this Committee was 

 founded, and tlie only specimciLS receiYcd for examination baYC 

 been collected by Mr. W. Hemingway, Barnsley, and Mr. T. 

 ■'^aJtonstall, Sowerb)-. 



Those collected l)y Mr. Saltonstall were from the Millstone 

 ^h-it, and as there are so few records from tliese rocks they are 

 peculiarly interesting, though they contain no new plants to the 

 Yorkshire Coal Field. As a rule specimens from the Millstone 

 Crit are vcr)'^ badly prescrYcd, and seldom admit of a specific 

 identification. Those collected by I\rr. Saltonstall were in many 

 cases preserved in shale, and though fragmentary, a number of 

 the fossils admitted of a satisfactory determination, and from 

 them several species are added to the flora of the ^Fillstone Grit. 



The Flora of the Millstone (irit is essentially the same as 

 that of the Lower Coal Measures, and palxontologically, the 

 Millstone Grit and Lower Coal Measures form one series, though 

 the physical conditions under which they were formed must 



have been \-erv different. 



Between the basement beds of the Millstone Grit and the 



uppermost beds of the Lower Carboniferous there must be a 



great gap in time, which in Britain ap[)ears to be unrepresented 



by any rock, for the flora of the underlying Lower Carboniferous 



is totally different from that of the Upper Carboniferous, of 



which the Millstone Grit is its lowest member. 



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