Vol. 51.] IN THE ' PERMIAN' ROCKS OF WYRE FOREST. 541 



Below these came a series of alternating red and purple marls and 

 sandstones, 227 feet thick ; and beneath this series, ' hard mottled 

 rock with black smuts, 4 feet.' At the foot of the copy of the section 

 is a memorandum : ' In the lane near The Bank a thin Permian 

 coal crops out.' 



About three years ago a well at White Cross was deepened, and a 

 thin coal, 2 inches thick, was passed through. The same coal was 

 found in a new well, recently sunk at the School House at "White 

 Cross. These statements come from men who have seen the coal. 



It appears to me better to give the evidence as it stands. I have 

 not myself seen any of these White Cross coals, but am inclined to 

 think that they must exist. 



(5; Fossils of the Wyre Forest ' Permian/ 



Besides the Spirorbis-limestone above described, a few plant- 

 remains have from time to time been recorded. The first announce- 

 ment appears to have been made by the late Sir Andrew Bamsay, 1 a 

 tree-stem having been found in the upper calcareous conglomerate 

 at Four Ashes in 1854. In 1858 Mr. C. E. Boberts 2 mentioned that 

 he had found some badly-preserved plant-remains at Alveley. No 

 identifications have been announced. Occasionally a few badly- 

 preserved fragments of stems are found in the Grindstone-beds of 

 Alveley and Extons, but they have never been systematically col- 

 lected or identified. We have, therefore, as yet, no help from the 

 fossil flora in this district in support either of the Coal Measure or 

 Permian age of these red rocks. 



IV. Classification" of the Wyre Forest ' Permian.' 



Having now, as I think, established the fact of the occurrence in 

 these red rocks of at least one Spirorbis-limestone band and of thin, 

 but nevertheless true coal-seams, our attention may be directed to 

 the bearing of these new facts on the classification of the red rocks 

 in which the limestones and coals occur. 



Let us consider first the Lower Sandstones and Marls — 

 No. 1 of the Wyre Forest Section (p. 533). These were regarded 

 by Murchison as representative of the Bothliegende of Germany. 

 He also suggested that the overlying calcareous conglomerates re- 

 presented the Zechstein. The former of these two theories has 

 been accepted and retained, while the calcareous conglomerates of 

 Alberbury, Coton, and The Bowels, etc., are now regarded simply 

 as more or less local and inconstant deposits indicative of the 

 proximity of land ; which land consisted largely of Carboniferous 

 Limestone and to some extent, apparently, of Upper Coal Measures 

 also, inasmuch as occasional pebbles of Spirorbis-limestone, con- 

 taining the fossil, occur in the conglomerates. 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. (1855) p. 189. 

 a ' Geologist,' 1858, p. 253. 



