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X. — On the Fossil Plants in the Ravenhead Collection in the Free Library and Museum, 

 Liverpool. By Robert Kidston, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. (Plates I. and II.) 



(Read 16th July 1888.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



A copy of Mr Marrat's paper " On the Fossil Ferns in the Ravenhead Collection " # 

 having come into my hands, I was led to visit the Liverpool Free Public Museum in 

 1886, and again in 1887, with the object of examining this interesting collection, and 

 while doing so I received every assistance from Mr Thomas J. Moore, the Curator, and 

 Mr F. P. Marrat, to whom I take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness for 

 the many kindnesses I received while studying the Ravenhead plants. I have further 

 the pleasure of acknowledging the privilege accorded me by the Museum Committee, 

 through the kind offices of the Rev. H. H. Higgins, which allowed me to have a number 

 of specimens sent to Stirling, where I could more advantageously examine them than in 

 the Museum, where the literature of the subject is limited. 



The history of the Ravenhead Collection has already been given by the Rev. H. H. 

 Higgins t and by Mr Marrat in his paper " On the Fossil Ferns in the Ravenhead 

 Collection." I may, however, briefly say here, that the specimens were collected by the 

 Rev. H. H. Higgins, chiefly from the shales associated with some upright stems of fossil 

 trees immediately below the lower of the two Ravenhead Coals. A few specimens may 

 also have been collected from the shales between the two Ravenhead Coals, or in the 

 shales that overlie them, but these form a small proportion of the collection. 



The section from which the fossils were collected was exposed while making a cutting 

 on the Huyton and St Helens Railway, which passed through the Middle Coal Measures, 

 at Ravenhead near St Helens, South Lancashire. 



Mr G. H. Morton, F.G-.S., author of the Geology of the Country around Liverpool, 

 has most kindly favoured me with the following sketch of the Geology of the South- 

 West Lancashire Coal Measures. Mr Morton's intimate knowledge of the geology 

 of this district, and his reliable work on the subject, are already known to geologists, 

 and I feel confident that the geological description with which he has favoured me 

 will add much to the value of this paper. 



The Coal Measures of South-West Lancashire rest on the Millstone Grit, which is 

 exposed in three restricted areas, viz., — Knowsley Park, Grimshaw Delf, and Parbold and 



* Abstract of Proc. of the Liverpool Geol. Soc, 13th session, 1871-72, p. 97, 1872 (Plates). 



t Proc. Liverpool Nat. Field Club for the year 1870-1871, and Abstr. of Proc. of the Liverpool Geol. Soc, 13th session, 

 1871-1872, p. 94, 1872. 



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