( 63 ) 



V. — On the Fossil Flora of the Staffordshire Coal Fields. By E. Kidston, 

 F.R.S.E., F.G.8. (With a Plate.) 



(Read July 7, 1890.) 



PART II. 

 The Fossil Flora of the Coal Field of the Potteries. 



The present paper is the second of the series dealing with the Fossil Flora of the 

 Staffordshire Coal Fields."" As in previous memoirs, I give a short sketch of the Geology 

 of the coal field, merely for the purpose of indicating the relationship of the beds to 

 each other, from which the fossils have been derived.! 



Various memoirs dealing with the geological structure and resources of the Potteries 

 Coal Field have already appeared, but in these the names applied to the different groups 

 of strata which compose the Potteries Coal Field have generally special application to the 

 local geological features, and do not treat of the Coal Field in its wider relationship, when 

 considered as only forming a part of the Coal Measures as developed in Britain. A similar 

 course has usually been taken in the published memoirs of other British Coal Fields, which 

 makes a comparison of their relative ages, from the data given, very difficult. 



Although the Mollusca have usually been collected and examined, from their great 

 vertical distribution — in some cases extending throughout the whole range of car- 

 boniferous rocks — they as a whole afford little data for the determination of the divisions 

 of the Coal Measures, and unfortunately the fossil plants appear to have received little 

 attention when the memoirs of the various coal fields were being prepared. This is 

 much to be regretted, as many opportunities for acquiring specimens have been lost, and 

 it is now generally admitted, by those who have studied this branch of Palaeontology, that 

 for the determination of the divisions of the Coal Measures there is no class of organisms 

 which afford such certain data as fossil plants. 



Before mentioning the divisions occurring in the Coal Measures of the Potteries 

 Coal Field which are adopted in this paper, it is desirable to mention those adopted by 

 previous writers. 



In the "Iron Ores of Great Britain," \ Part IV., the following divisions are recog- 

 nised : — 



* Part I., " On the Fossil Plants collected during the Sinking of the Shaft of the Hamstead Colliery, Great Barr, 

 near Birmingham," Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.,vo\. xxxv., part 6, p. 317, 1888. 



t In North Staffordshire there are four coal fields or basins, known respectively as — (1) The Potteries Coal Field ; 

 (2) The Wetley and Shafferlong Coal Field ; (3) The Goldsitch Moss Coal Field ; (4) The Cheadle Coal Field and the 

 Lower Coal Measures of the Churnet Valley. Of these, the largest and the most important coal field is that known as 

 the Pottery Coal Field, which contains the principal seams of coal and ironstone found in North Staffordshire. It is 

 also rich in organic remains. 



X Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, " The Iron Ores of Great Britain," part iv. ; The Iron 

 Ores of the Shropshire and North Staffordshire Coal Fields, 1862. 



VOL. XXXVI. PART I. (NO. 5). N 



