FOSSIL FLORA OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE COAL FIELDS. 331 



Description. — Small oval or elliptical seeds, sometimes almost circular from pressure 

 acting in the direction of their axis ; one or both extremities rounded, or more or less 

 pointed. Seeds bracteate, sessile, borne in two opposite alternate rows on a spike-like 

 axis. 



Remarks. — The form of these little seeds much depends on the direction in which 

 pressure has acted upon them. When flattened with pressure acting at right angles to 

 their axis, they are usually elliptical and pointed, as at fig. 86, Sd; but when pressure acts 

 on the apex or base of the seed, they are more or less circular, as at 8c. Between these 

 two extremes are intermediate forms. The surface of the seeds generally shows foldings 

 of the testa, and in some cases the seeds appear to have a narrow surrounding border ; 

 but this appearance is also due to pressure. 



Horizon : — Many specimens on the surface of a small slab, of which fig. 8 gives four 

 examples, from a depth of 550 yards. 



General Remarks. 



From an examination of the foregoing lists, it will be seen that a proportion of the 

 species recorded are common to both horizons. 



Annularia stellata, Sphenojihyllum emarginatum, Neuropteris ovata, Neuropteris 

 Scheuchzeri, Neuropteris flexuosa, Odontopteris Lindleyana, Pecopteris arborescens, 

 Pecopteris unita, Lepidodendron Worthenii, Cordaites angulosostriatus, and Walchia 

 imbricata are, however, specially characteristic of British Upper Coal Measure rocks, 

 though a few of these species have been observed in the Middle Coal Measures, but there 

 they are much more scarce. 



The Middle Coal Measure facies of the flora, collected from the strata of that 

 horizon at Hamstead, is more characterised by the absence of Upper Coal Measure 

 species than by the occurrence of species restricted to the Middle Coal Measures. 

 Sigillaria mamillaris is, however, a specially characteristic Middle Coal Measure 

 plant. 



On the publication of lists of the fossil flora of the South Staffordshire Middle Coal 

 Measures, the peculiar characteristics of the Middle Coal Measure flora will be much 

 more distinctly seen. 



In comparing the list of fossils from the Upper Coal Measures of Hamstead 

 with those of the Upper Coal Measures of the Radstock and Farrington series of the 

 Somerset Coal Field, one cannot fail to be struck with the great similarity of their 

 fossil contents. All those found at Hamstead, with the exception of Catamites 

 undulatus (which may be only a form of C. Suckowii), Alethopteris decurrens (which 

 is, perhaps, a variety of A. lonchitica that occurs at Radstock), Lepidophyllum 

 lanceolatum, and Lepidostrobus variabilis, — all occur in the Radstock series, and the 

 greater part of the species also occur in the Farrington series. From the Red Shales 

 which separate the Radstock and Farrington Series I have seen few vegetable remains, 



