656 MB. W. H. HAEDAKEK 0:S A FOSSIL-BEAEING HOEIZON [DeC. I912, 



As respects the bearing of the Hamstead fossils on the question 

 of the age and correlation of the containing rocks, we may confine 

 our attention to the fossil plants and the fossil footprints. 



(2) The Plants. 



Plants in a specifically identifiable condition are rare. Most of 

 those found were obtained from layers of fine-grained red sand- 

 stone, immediately under the bed of conglomerate near the top of 

 the face of Turner & Hadley's New Quarry ; but a few specimens 

 of Walchia (doubtfully referable to W. piniformis) were found in 

 the massive sandstones above the conglomerate. The genera 

 noted are Walcliia and Arlisia. Specimens of Walchia are fairly 

 common. Even in the specimens which are not generically iden- 

 tifiable, and have come under my notice, there is nothing referable 

 to a fern or fern-like plant. 



Walchia pi^eoemis (Schlotheim). (Pig. 9.) 



T-,. p, rn • j-^T \ y,- Three examples of this species 



^]^-^--F"'y f ^'^'."'^f have been identified. One of these 

 piniformis (natural s^ze). j^ ^^^^^^ i^^^^_ ^^^ j^^^^^ ^^^ 



5 mm. long, and are unusually 

 thick and markedly keeled. 



In Britain W. piniformis .is re- 

 AiA^jN^Vj^-v^^-^j^-,^^?^^"^' corded only from the Langley-Green 

 VJ^ ~^'" boring^ made through {he same 



type of rocks as those at Hamstead 

 Colliery. The Langley-Green locality is distant 4| miles south- 

 west from Hamstead. The actual horizon at which the fossil 

 was found is not stated. 



Abroad, W. piniformis is perhaps the commonest fossil of the 

 Lower Permian (Autunian) of Prance and the Lower Permian 

 (Eothliegende) of Germany.^ La Prance^ and Italy ^ it is re- 

 corded also from the highest Upper Carboniferous (Stephanian) 

 rocks, and in Germany from the higher beds of the Ottweiler 

 Series or the Ppper Carboniferous of the Saarbriicken Coalfield.^ 



It is, however, both in Prance and in Germany, a rare fossil 

 in Ppper Carboniferous rocks. 



Walchia imbeicata Schimper. 



This species is rather commoner than the former, or is at least 

 better preserved, and several specimens referable to this species 



1 W. Gibson, 'On the Search for Coal beneath the^Eed Eocks of the 

 Midland Counties' Summary of Progress, Geol. Surv. for 1905 (1906) p. 173. 



^ W. Pabst, 'Die Tierfahrten in dem Eotliegenden Deutschlands ' Nov, 

 Act. Acad. C^s. Leop.-Carol. vol. kxxix (1908) p. 338. 



3 E. Roche, Bull. Soc. Geol. France, ser. 3, vol. ix (1880) p. 79. 



* A. de Lapparent, 'Traite de Geologie' 5th ed. vol. ii (1906) pp. 953 & 963. 



^ C. E. Weiss, 'Fossile Flora der jiingsten Steinkohlenformation & des 

 Eothliegenden im Saar-Ehein-Gebieie ' vol. i (1869) p. 6. 



