74 Geology of the Coal beds of Central India. [Jan. 



India* ; thus, the identity of the different beds referred to, is so far 

 confirmed. 



With the exception just mentioned, as well as the impressions of 

 lycopodiums and ferns in the shales connected with Burdwan coal, 

 organic remains have been hitherto little noticed in Indian coals ; but 

 when we avail ourselves of improved means of observation we find this 

 branch of the subject no less interesting- here, than it had been rendered 

 in Europef . 



The microscopic discoveries of the organic tissues of plants recently 

 made by the Rev. Mr. Reade in the ashes of English coal, have induced 

 J. W. Grant, Esq. of Calcutta to repeat those interesting observations 

 with complete success. The ashes of Serarim coal, as well as those 

 afforded by several kinds from the neighbourhood of Silhet, and one 

 variety of the Burdwan coal, display most distinct signs of organic tex- 

 tures ; so much so, that some of the coals of very different localities 

 may be identified by their ashes as having been formed from similar 

 plants under similar circumstances — for instance, one variety of coal 

 from the foot of the hills near Silhet, with another from a lofty bed on 

 the summit of the Kasya mountains. 



With regard to the nature of the rocks in Central India associated 

 with coal, as far as their details have been made out, there can be little 

 question regarding their identity with the coal measures of Chirra. 

 Franklin, after an examination of several districts, considered the 

 sandstones of the Nerbudda to represent the new red conglomerate of 

 Europe. The Rev. Mr. Everest on the other hand, has assigned 

 excellent reasons for supposing those rocks to bear a closer alliance to 

 the old red sandstone, and his views are strengthened, if not confirmed, 

 by more recent and extended observations in a quarter better calculated 

 to afford satisfactory results. The limestone of the same districts were 

 considered by Captain Franklin, and other writers of the same period 

 with no better reason, to represent the lias ; but Mr. Everest justly 



* Res. Phys. Class. Asiat. Soc. 1892.— 13. 

 t A gentleman recently engaged in a survey of one of our coal fields, exhibited 

 a large reed which seemed to be an ordinary species of saccharum, at one of 

 the late scientific soirees at Government House, as the plant from which coal 

 is derived. It is however stated on the authority of Lindley and Hutton, 

 in their Fossil Flora, that no glumaceous plant has been found in a fossil state, 

 though grasses now form a general feature of the vegetation of all countries. 

 Of 260 species of plants discovered in coal formations, 220 are cryptogamous, the 

 remainder afford no instance of any reed, notwithstanding some doubtful appear- 

 ances to the contrary, and not a single vegetable impression in the coal beds has 

 beeD identified with any plant now growing on the earth. 



