362 
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 j 
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. fronde bipinnata, pinnis alternis sessilibus multijugis, pinnulis alter- 
nis subsessilibus parallelis lineari-oblongis obtusis profuude pinnatifidis 
basi acutis, laciniis oblongis obtusissimis integerrimis, venis pinnatis sim- 
plicibus apice acute libero ante marginem frondis evanesceutibus, costis | 
racliibusque convexis flexuosis. 
S. flavicans, Presl. 
In schisto litbantracum Bohemiae ad Brzas, prope Badnitz. Color 
frondis uti videtur amploe griseo-flavescens vel flavescente-virescens. I 
Pigura la ectypum a figm-a 1/^ paululum differens exhibero videtur; dif- ^ 
fereutia lisec inde exorta esse potest, quod in figura la frondis pars su- i 
prema, in Ih frondis inferior fere pars unius ejusdemque stirpis conservata 
esse videtur. In figura Ic pinnula aueta 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 I 
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 I 
Fig. 1. Venation of Bntish Specimen Fig. 2. Yenatioa of Sternberg's speci- 
figured in PI. XIX. men — Sphenopteris Jlavicans. 
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- 
