802 MR ROBERT KIDSTON ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF 



Sternb., sp., Pinakodendron Macconochi, Kidston, n.sp., Cordaianthus Volkmanni, Ett., 

 sp., and Cordaicarpus Corded, Geinitz, sp. Though Sphenopteris Laurenti, Andrse, and 

 Sigillaria elegans, Sternb., sp., also occur in the Lower Coal Measures, they are very 

 rare in that horizon, and are much more characteristic of the Middle Coal Measures. 



From the evidence afforded by the fossil plants, I have no hesitation in classing 

 the Byre Burn group with the Middle Coal Measures of Britain. 



Fossil Plants of the Upper Coal Measures. (The Red Shales.) 



These occupy a considerable tract of ground, and are well exposed in many places 

 in the parish of Canonbie and in the neighbouring part of Cumberland. 



The series as a whole is extremely barren of fossils, though it offers many good 

 sections along the river Esk and the Liddel Water ; and though these sections were 

 more or less carefully examined by Mr Macconochie and myself, they did not yield a 

 single fossil plant. 



At Jockie's Syke, in Cumberland, one mile east by north of Biddings Junction, 

 where in 1879 Mr Macconochie found a few small specimens in this series, we were 

 successful in discovering plant remains in three different bands. 



The section here is, however, high up in the series, and for this portion of it the 

 fossils indicate an Upper Coal Measure age. 



It is very unfortunate that the lower portion of the series along the river Esk and 

 Liddel Water is so barren (though plants may still be found in it, for the extent of 

 ground to examine is considerable) ; for if the rocks form a continuous series with the 

 Byre Burn Middle Coal Measures (though there may possibly be a fault between them), 

 one would expect to find in the lower portion of the ' Red Shales ' a transition flora 

 composed partly of Middle and partly of Upper Coal Measure plants, similar to the 

 series which occurs above the Middle Coal Measures in the Potteries Coalfield, and to 

 which I have applied the name of the Transition series* 



From the absence of any plant remains in the lower beds of these ' Bed Shales,' 

 I am unable to determine whether they belong to this Upper Transition series or to 

 the Upper Coal Measures. 



The flora of the upper beds, however, as developed in Jockie's Syke, have a distinct 

 Upper Coal Measure facies ; and though one misses from the list of plants collected there 

 several of the Pecopteris-Cyatheites group, some do occur, but their preservation 

 is so unsatisfactory that it is impossible to determine them specifically, as the nervation 

 is seldom shown. 



It is sometimes difficult to draw the exact line between the Upper Transition series 



* Kidston, " On the various Divisions of British Carboniferous Rocks as determined by their Fossil Flora," Proc. 

 Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin., vol. xii. pp. 228-229, 1894. Also "Additional Records and Notes on the Fossil Flora of the 

 Potteries Coalfield, North Staffordshire," Trans. N. Staffordshire Field Club, 1897, Stoke-upon-Trent. 





