BAILT ON FOSSIL PLANTS FROM THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 40 



shells, &c, occurring in the grit, generally occupying distinct zones, 

 certain bivalves, considered to be characteristic lower Carboniferous 

 shells, being the most abundant, indicating, as he believed, the base of 

 the Carboniferous series with more certainty than the Plants. Several 

 places, principally from rocks on the shores of Kenmare and Bantry 

 Bays, at which Plants were collected by the officers of the Geological 

 Survey, are noticed in the Explanations before alluded to (197 and 198), 

 as well as the occurrence of marine shells and other fossils in some of the 

 beds, of decidedly Carboniferous species, many of them such as are 

 found in the limestone of other parts of Ireland. At various places 

 inland also, from rocks described as Carboniferous slate, similar fossils 

 have been collected ; several of these places I have myself visited in con- 

 nexion with my duties on the Geological Survey. 



In treating of the fossil Plants of the Coal formation, the con- 

 trast presented by the paucity of specific forms of Plants in the ex- 

 tinct vegetation of the older Carboniferous, with their great profusion 

 at a later period, during the deposit of the coal measures, is as 

 remarkable in Ireland as in England, and other parts of the world 

 where the true coal formation is developed ; their remains, sufficiently 

 perfect for specific identification, being found abundant in the shales, 

 and more sparingly in the sandstones; whilst in the coal itself, 

 which has been satisfactorily proved to be of vegetable origin, from 

 compression and mineralization, the specific character of the Plants 

 from which it was derived is almost entirely obliterated. Collec- 

 tions of fossils have been made by the officers of the Geological Survey 

 at various places throughout the districts occupied by the coal for- 

 mation, most of them having passed through my hands for examina- 

 tion, and many of the localities been visited by me. Remarks on these 

 fossils, with list of species, are inserted in the published Explanations 

 of the Maps of the Geological Survey; and, as there still remain a 

 great many fossils for examination, and places to be visited, I can only 

 at present offer a few remarks on such an important branch of 

 the subject as the coal fields of Ireland, and their probable correspond- 

 ence with similar deposits in England and on the Continent. My first 

 examination of the Irish coal fields was made in company with Mr. G. 

 H. Kinahan, in 1858, when we visited the colleriesin the neighbourhood 

 of Castlecomer, some of them belonging to Benjamin B. Edge, J. P., of 

 Clonbrock House, by whose liberality, and that of his son, Mr. John 

 Edge, LL. B., the collection of fossils belonging to the Geological Sur- 

 vey has been enriched with many specimens, and much valuable in- 

 formation imparted to the officers of the Survey. In the identification 

 of the fossil Plants from the shales at these collieries I have been greatly 

 assisted by the experience of my friend, Dr. Geinitz, of Dresden, who 

 accompanied me there on a subsequent occasion. They consisted of 

 Catamites, representing the Equisetaceae, Asterophyllites , and Splieno- 

 phyllum, the Asterophyllitese ; several species of ferns, including the 

 widely-distributed species Alethopteris lonchitidis ; Sagenaria, and Le- 

 pidopJiylliim, its leaves, with Lepidostrobus, the fruit, and Aspidiaria, 



VOL. V. H 



