Vol.65.] FOSSIL PLANTS FROM THE KENT COALFIELD. 21 



2. On the Fossil Plants of the Waldershare and Fredville Series 

 of the Kent Coalfield. By E. A. jSTewell Arber, M.A., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., Trinity College, Cambridge ; University 

 Demonstrator in Paleobotany. (Read November 4th, 1908.) 



[Plate I.] 



Contents. -r, 



Page 

 I. Introduction 21 



II. Description of the Specimens 24 



III. The Horizon 31 



IV. Bibliography 38 



I. Introduction. 



At the present time, important series of coal-seams have been 

 proved by means of borings in three localities in Sonth-Eastern Kent. 

 As apparently the lithological sequence, including the coal-seams, 

 is quite distinct in each case, we may, as a temporary expedient 

 until the structure of this concealed coalfield can be demonstrated, 

 distinguish them as the Dover, Waldershare, and Fredville Series. 



The Dover Series was the first discovered. In 1886, a boring 

 was made at the site of the proposed Channel Tunnel on the fore- 

 shore at Shakespeare Cliff, rather more than a mile to the west of 

 the Admiralty pier at Dover. The Coal-Measures were reached in 

 1890, at a depth of 1100 feet, and the boring subsequently penetrated 

 to a depth of about 2270 feet, passing through thirteen seams of coal, 

 varying from 1 to 4 feet in thickness. The Dover Series is essentially 

 a thin-coal series, and sandstone-beds are comparatively numerous. 

 For many years past attempts have been made to sink shafts, and 

 to work the coals, on or near the site of the original borings, by 

 the Kent Collieries, Limited, but hitherto with small success owing 

 to difficulties in connexion with the inflowing water derived from 

 the Mesozoic rocks. The fossil plants obtained from the original 

 boring through the Dover Series were described by Prof. Zeiller 1 

 in 1892, and will be further discussed here. 



In 1904, a new company, the Kent Coal Concessions, Limited, 

 with which several daughter companies and syndicates have more 

 recently been associated, was formed in order to search for coal 

 to the north of Dover. Early in 1905, a boring was begun at 

 Waldershare Park, about 6 miles north-west of Dover. The Coal- 

 Measures were struck at a depth of 1394 feet from the surface, 

 and the bore penetrated farther through some 1260 feet of the 



1 Zeiller (92). Numerals in parentheses after authoi-s' names indicate the 

 date of the paper to which reference will be found in the Bibliography, § IV, 

 p. 38. 



