382 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



doubt, we think the species is the same, namely, Sphenopteris flavi- 

 cans of Presl. Not finding this species recorded as a British one, 

 we carefully drew it; but our engraver, not being a naturalist, has 

 lost the character of the venation in endeavouring, to his mind, to 

 improve the picturesqueness of the drawing. The Plate (XIX.) how- 

 ever gives a very good idea of the general form, while the two little 

 outlines of the venation we have added make up for the trifling da- 

 mage the engraver unwittingly committed. 

 The description given by Sternberg is, — 



S. frond e bipinnata, pinnis alternis . sessilibus multijugis, pinnulis alter - 

 nis subsessilibus parallelis lineari-oblongis obtusis profunde pinnatifidis 

 basi acutis, laoiniis oblongis obtusissimis integerrimis, venis pinnatis sim- 

 plicibus apice acuto libero ante marginem frondis evanescentibus, costis 

 rachibusque convexis flexuosis. 



8. flavicans, Presl. 



In sehisto lithantracum Bohemise ad Brzas, prope Radnitz. Color 

 frondis uti videtur am pise griseo-flavescens vel flavescente-virescens. 

 Pigura la ectypum a figura lb paululum differens exhibere videtur ; dif- 

 ferentia hsee inde exorta esse potest, quod in figura la frondis pars su- 

 prema, in lb frondis inferior fere pars unius ejusdemque stirpis conservata 

 esse videtur. In figura 1c pinnula aucta exhibetur. 



It is deeply to be regretted that the many opportunities that are 

 hourly occurring in this land of coal and iron are so thoroughly neg- 

 lected, and that scarcely anywhere, except in the Manchester district, 

 are any collections of coal-plants made. Mr. Binney has done more 

 in this way than any one else ; but necessarily, from his other and 

 important business avocations, his scientific studies would be some- 

 what desultory. 



It is a common practice now to speak of coal being formed of 

 certain kinds of plants, whose remains have been found in the shales 

 associated with the coal-seams ; but surely much false reasoning may 

 thus arise, and the difficulties of such a line of argument become 

 painfully evident when palaeontologists speak of the old coal-making 

 forest-trees as growing like mangroves in the sea. In the shales and 



Tig. 1. Venation of British Specimen Fig. 2. Venation of Sternberg's spec*, 



figured in PI. XIX. men — Sphenopteris flavicans. 



other strata associated with our coal-beds we have land-insects and 

 sea-shells. We do not usually nowadays find the like associations 

 in our tropical forests or in our own verdant dells. Surely it is ra- 



