NATIONAL POWER AND COAL 165 
the view that the plants of any geological age can make 
coal. In my opinion there is potential coal in every — 
plant, in an oak tree as in a Lepidodendron, in a goose- 
grass as in a Sphenophyllum. In one of the greatest 
coalfields of Japan, of Tertiary age, I have seen much 
evidence that the woody trees of genera still living 
contributed to the thick beds of true black coal; and, 
to come nearer home, in Canada the great coalfields 
of the West are rich in evidence that they were produced 
from a mixed flora of “‘ modern ”’ type, mainly Gymno- 
sperms and Dicotyledons. 
Coal, in truth, is not the product of a particular kind 
of plant, nor is it the product of particular parts of 
plants ; it may be produced by any parts of any kind of 
plant. But we are still ignorant of the extent to which 
differences in quality and in contents may depend on 
the differences in the parts of the plants producing 
it. This carries us into a realm of work too technical 
for present discussion. 
To plants, then, we owe our coal, to coal our power, 
to coal innumerable substances wrought into our com- 
forts and our luxuries. Our demands for power and for 
luxuries grow daily : does our source of these, our coal ¢ 
The answer, as is probably well known, is in the nega- 
tive. As a result of the recent searchings of heart 
caused by the war, it is also probably well known that 
we have certainly a few hundreds, possibly a thousand 
or two, years’ supply of coal. But long before we have 
reached the limits of our reserves, coal will have become 
so expensive and difficult to get that we shall have to 
face the handicap of restriction of all those things coal 
provides. It may be of interest to some to have before 
