24 ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 480 



down from Wabash College (where Shutts was teaching at the time) and wrote 

 a Ph.D. dissertation on the palynology of the Pleistocene interstadials in 

 Indiana [1962]. 



Palynological studies of the Indiana coals began in the early 1950s when 

 G. K. Guennel joined the Coal Section of the Indiana Geological Survey in Bloom- 

 ington. Guennel had received graduate training at Butler University in Indianapolis 

 and had analyzed several peat bogs in northern Indiana. The Director of the In- 

 diana Geological Survey, Charles Deiss, who also was head of the Geology De- 

 partment at Indiana University, was interested in exploring the paleobotanical 

 aspects of Indiana along lines of research similar to those developed by the Illi- 

 nois Geological Survey. 



Canright wrote us about his cooperative efforts with the Indiana Geological 

 Survey: 



After I gave a talk to the Geology Colloquium on the paleobotany of the 

 Paleozoic, Deiss invited me to be Field Party Chief during the summers of 

 1953 and 195^ to study the plant megafossils associated with the Indiana 

 coals. Joe Wood was my field assistant during the 1953 season, and C. F. 

 Shutts assisted me in the 195^ season. The fossil plants and coal balls 

 collected during these two field seasons were accessioned into the collec- 

 tions of the Coal Section of the Indiana Geological Survey. 



In 1954 Joseph M. Wood and Canright published a paper on the status of 

 paleobotany in Indiana, with special reference to the fossils of Pennsylvanian 

 age. Papers on the collections of Pennsylvanian plants (Shutts and Canright, 

 1955), the history of paleobotany in Indiana (Canright, 1958), and the paleobo- 

 tanical potential in the Indiana portion of the basin (Canright, 1959) followed. 



Part of the older compression- impression floras of the Illinois Basin were 

 described by Wood. In 1957 he published a paper on the morphology and relation- 

 ships of sigillarian fructifications from the lower Pennsylvanian of Indiana and in 

 1963 a description of the Stanley Cemetery flora (early Pennsylvanian) of Greene 

 County, Indiana, which was the subject of his thesis. 



Canright wrote us, "I regard this discovery as one of our most important 

 contributions in the Illinois Basin. Most of the fossils were preserved in iron- 

 stone concretions similar to (but not as hard to break) those of the so-called 

 Mazon Creek type. " Wood studied with Canright for his doctorate at Indiana 

 and then joined the faculty at the University of Missouri, where collections from 

 his study are located. 



Coal- Ball Studies 



The 1930s saw a new generation of paleobotanists working in and around 

 the Illinois Basin, paleobotanists visiting from Europe, and the beginnings of paly- 

 nology. Much of the activity resulted from the impetus provided by Noe and the 

 discovery of coal balls. 



Studies of coal-ball plants from the Illinois Basin began at the University 

 of Chicago under Noe's supervision, and somewhat later were taken up at the Illi- 

 nois Geological Survey by Schopf . Sustained programs then developed at Washing- 

 ton University in St. Louis under Andrews and at the University of Illinois under 

 Stewart . 



