258 J. Tf. Dawson on Spore-cases in Coals. 



slates of New York. It contains stems of Calamites imrnatus 

 and of a Lepidodendron, obscurely preserved, but apparently of 

 the type of L. Veltheimianum, and possibly the same with L 

 primcBVum of Eogers. The spore-cases are not improbably those 

 of this plant, or of the species L. Gaspianum, which belongs 

 to the same horizon, though not found at this locality. The 

 occurrence of this bed is a remarkable evidence of the abund- 

 ance of Lycopodiaceous trees, whose spores must have driftel 

 in immense quantities in the winds, to form such a bed. I' 

 to be observed, however, that this is not a bed of coal, 1 • 

 bituminous shale of brown color, and with pale streak. 

 doubt accumulated in water, and even marine, since it con: 

 Spirophyton* and shells of Lingida. In this it agi-ees witl 

 Australian Tasmanite, which, though composed in great : 

 of spore-cases of Ferns, is, as I am informed by Mr. Sehvyt. 

 aqueous deposit, containing marine shells. 



There is, however, one bed of true coal known in the L>y' 

 nian of Eastern America, that of Tar Point, Gaspe, and it .^ 

 curious to observe that this is not composed of spore-cases, but 

 of successive thin layers of rhizomata and stems of Psihphyton, 

 with occasional fragments of Lepidodendron and Cydostigma. 

 Eounded disks, which may be spore-cases, occur in it, but very 

 rarely. In the bituminous shales associated with this coal, the 

 microscope shows amber-colored flakes of irregular form, out 

 these are easily ascertained to be portions of the epidermis ot 

 Psilophyton, or of the chitinous crusts of crustaceans which 

 abound in these beds. 



Ascending to the Lower Carboniferous (sub-carboniferous), 

 there are great quantities of rounded spore-cases of the size ot 

 mustard seeds {Sporangites glabra of my papers) in the rocks o 

 Horton Bluff and Lower Horton, Nova Scotia. They are some- 

 times globular, and filled with pyrite of a granular texture 

 which perhaps represents the original cellular structure or tn^ 

 microspores. In other cases they are flattened and constitute 

 thin carbonaceous layers. They are almost without doubt tne 

 spore-cases of Lepidodendron corrugafum, which abounds va 

 same beds, and constitutes in one place a forest of erect stump- 

 I described them in a paper on the Lower Carboniferous ^ 

 Nova Scotia in the Proceedings of the Geological Societ} o 

 London for 1858, though not then aware of their true nativr • 

 which was, however, recognized by Dr. Hooker in some spet 

 mens which I had sent to London. . . ^^ 



In my paper on the conditions of accumulation ot ^ ' 

 (Proceedings of Geological Society of London, May, l»^^j, 

 proposed the name Sporangites for 'these bodies, in consequenc 

 of the difficulty of referi-ing them certainly to any gene^ 



