13 
found universally distributed, but, on the contrary, occur 
in particular beds or seams of coal, worked in different 
localities, some of which have been more accurately investi- 
gated than others; as, for instance, the Lancashire coal field, 
which alone contains, as Mr. Binney informs me, nearly 
double the number of species enumerated by Lindley and 
Plutton. This fact he attributes to the circumstance of 
the upper part of the series in Lancashire being exposed 
and more fully developed than is the case in Yorkshire 
and Durham; where about 700 yards of the upper coal 
field of Lancashire is covered up by the Magnesian Lime- 
stone, and contains several peculiar fossil plants, detected 
also in the Nova Scotia coal field, by Sir C. Lyell. The 
next whose flora is best known is that of the Newcastle 
and Durham, in which occur several species not, as yet, 
discovered in Yorkshire, This is also the case with that 
of Coalbrook Dale, so that each contains a few species 
unknown in the others. Hence, of the above number the 
proportions in those whose contents have been investigated, 
are pretty nearly as follows : — In the Newcastle and Dur- 
ham we find about 87 ; in the Yorkshire, exclusive of the 
Oolitic series, about 72; in the Coalbrook Dale 75; while 
in the Lancashire portion will probably be found far more 
species. Of the coal fields, however, of Derby, Stafford, 
Whitehaven, Ashby, Warwickshire, Dudley, South Wales, 
Gloucester, Somerset, and the Forest of Dean, we know 
comparatively nothing as regards their flora; therefore a 
considerable accession of species may be expected when 
the shales from these districts have been examined. 
From the enumeration I have just given, it will be per- 
ceived I do not confine my observations to the valuable 
working seams of the West Riding only, the source of so 
much wealth, and the main-spring of our manufactures, 
but embrace also those of the upper carboniferous shales 
