34 ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 480 



Obviously, coal- ball flora studies are dependent on coal-ball collections 

 from many areas and stratigraphic horizons that may not be avaiable for collecting 

 in the future. A word of caution is appropriate regarding the relative permanence 

 of coal-ball collections from many localities within the Illinois Basin and other 

 areas. In a re- examination of the coal-ball collections at the Illinois Geological 

 Survey and at the University of Illinois at Urbana, the two oldest collections in the 

 Illinois Basin, many coal-ball specimens were found to have disintegrated beyond re- 

 construction because they had been stored without a protective coating . The length 

 of time coal balls can be preserved seems to depend upon their relative pyrite 

 content and the chemical treatments received by the specimen and may be less 

 than 10 years for many coal balls regarded as being in a good state of preservation 

 when originally cut. Coal balls very low in pyrite content have survived almost 

 50 years of storage in Noe's collection of coal balls from Indiana. 



About an early collecting trip with Stewart, Hall related the following anec- 

 dote: 



We were poking around a tipple, at a coal mine that had been abandoned for 

 a number of years, and the prospects really didn't look very good. Sud- 

 denly, Bill Stewart reached down and shouted with obvious excitement — 

 "Here's one." So we pried this thing out, which looked suspiciously an- 

 gular, turned it over, and there, neatly stamped on the lower surface was 

 "111. Brick Co." Well, I suspect that neither of us had had much experi- 

 ence with collecting coal balls at that time. 



Stewart recalled: 



The first coal-ball collecting trip was made with Jim Schopf and Bob 

 Kosanke. We visited the New Delta mine which is only a couple of miles 

 from the Sahara mine. The coal balls had the same flora [Herrin (No. 6) 

 Goal]. We went to the area around Harrisburg and West Frankfort and ended 

 up in Berryville. 



Stewart was Chairman of the Botany Department from 1959 to 1963. In 1964 

 he wrote An Upward Outlook in Plant Morphology 3 which is the most lucid account 

 of the Telome theory in the English language. In 1965 Stewart accepted the head- 

 ship of the Botany Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, where 

 he has resumed his paleobotanical contributions, some of which are on coal- ball 

 plants from the Illinois Basin (Ramanujam and Stewart, 1969). Stewart wrote : 



The potential for productive coal-ball studies is there and always will 

 be. The basis for this judgment is the magnitude and quality of studies 

 that have come from the University of Illinois laboratories over the past 

 few years. I think it must be pretty apparent that to study coal balls, 

 you have to go to the midwestern coal basins and there are a number of 

 fine laboratories where such work can be done under the direction of com- 

 petent supervisors. 



Mass coal-ball collecting, literally by the ton, began early at the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, and the emphasis on ontogeny of petrified Pennsylvanian plants 

 had much of its origin in Stewart's morphological approach, which was expanded 

 and developed by his students, particularly Delevoryas and, in turn, the latter' s 

 students. Generosity with the paleobotanical resources at his disposal was a 

 characteristic of Stewart. Outstanding coal-ball specimens were loaned to his 

 former students and to students and faculty at other universities (Fry, 1954; Eggert, 

 1959a; Phillips, 1961; and others). Andrews was similarly generous with research 

 materials, particularly to Stewart's students. 



