28 CATALOGUE OP FOSSIL PLANTS 



By reference to trie Catalogue it will be seen that the greater 

 number of the local specimens in the Hutton Collection were 

 obtained from the shale above the Bensham-Seam of coal at the 

 Jarrow Old Pit, now long disused; and a few from the High- 

 Main roof-shale at St. Hilda's Pit, South Shields; and also 

 several of the Type-specimens from the shale above the Low- 

 Main Coal-Seam at Felling Colliery, near Gateshead. There 

 are also in the collection several specimens from Burdie House 

 and other localities near Edinburgh (from the Calciferous-Sand- 

 stone series), contributed by Dr. Hibbert and others, and speci- 

 mens from the Somersetshire and Whitehaven Coal-fields. The 

 local specimens, then, were obtained from the very limited zone 

 included in the shale above the High-Main Seam and the shale 

 above the Low-Main Seam, and none certainly from the lower 

 seams, and only one or two from the Carboniferous (Mountain) 

 Limestone proper. There were also in the original collection 

 several foreign specimens, from German localities, obtained 

 through dealers. 



Here it may again be stated that so far as the Lower Seams 

 of Coal in this Coal-basin are concerned their flora is entirely 

 unrepresented iu Lindley and Hutton's " Fossil Plora;" and 

 this omission is much to be regretted, as from the investigations 

 made during a few years in one or two of the lower beds, there 

 is reason to believe that some species unknown or rare in the 

 higher beds were abundant and well-preserved in the lower 

 series. But reference to these will be more specially made in 

 the second part of these Contributions, in which the General 

 Collection of Local and other Fossil Plants in the Museum will 

 be catalogued. 



The localities given in most works on Coal-measure Fossils 

 from our Coal-field are exceedingly vague, and of very little 

 scientific value. In a Catalogue lately published we have on 

 one line the following references, ' ' Durham ; Sunderland ; 

 Northumberland; Newcastle-on-Tyne." As two of the above 

 names are counties as well as cities the vagueness is increased. 

 There is no coal pit, and there never has been one, in Sunder- 

 land, the city of Durham, nor in the city of Newcastle-on-Tyne 



