73 
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE FLORA OF THE LOWER COAL MEA- 
SURES OF THE PARISH OF HALIFAX, YORKSHIRE. BY WJI. 
CASH, F.G.S., and THOS. HICK, B.A., B.Sc, &c. 
Perhaps no branch of Palaeontology presents greater 
difficulties to the geological student than that of Fossil 
Botany, and this is especially true of the fossils furnished by 
the Palaeozoic rocks. The remains of plants are so fragmen- 
tary and disconnected, that it is very rarely that the portions 
of such as are found, in even tolerable abundance, can with 
certainty be placed in their true relations to each other; 
besides this, most of the fossils are simply casts or impres- 
sions, and exhibit no traces whatever of structure ; added to 
these is the fact that those organs, such as flowers, seeds, 
fruits, &c, which are of the greatest classifactory importance, 
are the very ones which in nine hundred and ninety-nine 
cases in a thousand are not found fossilised; hence some 
idea may be gathered of the difficult task which lies before 
the botanist who attempts from these fragmentary relics 
of an ancient flora to reconstruct for us its long-hidden 
vegetable forms. 
During the past ten years or so much has been done 
towards elucidating the structure and affinities of the plants 
which flourished in the Carboniferous age. In England, a 
fresh impulse has been given to the study of the plants of 
the Coal period, by the diligent and careful researches of 
such distinguished naturalists as Mr. Carruthers, Mr. Binney, 
and notably Professor Williamson, of whom we may say that 
he is facile princeps. The specimens of Carboniferous 
plants, so wonderfully preserved as to show structure even 
in its minutest details, which have enabled fossil botanists 
to push forward their researches much further than at one 
time seemed likely or even possible, have been chiefly 
collected (in England at least) in two localities, namely, near 
