PROCEEDINGS 1841 — 1848. 
193 
cribed some fossil trees found standing upright in the Lancashire 
Coal-field. He alluded to trees found in cutting the Manchester 
and Bolton Railway, described by the late Mr. Bowman, who con- 
sidered they afforded positive proof that the trees forming the beds 
of coal upon which they stood had gTown upon the spot where they 
were found. The specimens described by Mr. Binney had been prin- 
cipally found in the roofs immediately above seams of coal, and were 
referred to the genus Sigillaria. He next described a singular genus 
of supposed coal plants, (Stigmaria) and stated that he had found 
evidence of that fossil in the floors on which the coal rested, in all 
the seams examined by him, nearly 100 in number, in the Lancashire 
Coal-field. Fossil trees found at St. Helens exhibited the stems of 
Sigillaria absolutely united to the roots of Stigmaria, thus first proving 
the identity of these tw'o plants. Mr. Binney supposed that remains 
of Sigillaria were the chief constituents of the beds of coal resting 
on floors containing Stigmaria ; that this vegetable matter had 
undoubtedly grown on the spot where it is found, and was not drifted 
from a distance, and that each seam of coal indicated a period of 
repose of the earth's crust, during which a separate marine forest of 
vegetation gTCw, in the successive subsidences of the area on which 
the coal measures were formed ; the sandy and argillaceous strata 
having been accumulated during subsidences of the earth's crust 
beneath the sea, whilst the coal seams themselves were the product 
of plants grown during periods of repose when the surface was 
elevated. 
At the meetings held in 1845 and two succeeding years, Mr. 
William Sykes Ward, of Leeds, contributed a number of important 
papers, mostly on physical subjects. He was of an inventive disposi- 
tion, and took out several patents for improvements in machinery, 
and for applications of electricity to industrial purposes. Amongst 
others, he contributed a paper on vibrations producing sound, a subject 
on which he had expended considerable experimental attention, 
which led him to adopt the theory of a direct progressive motion 
rather than the uudulatory theory for the transmission of sound. In 
March, 1846, he read a paper on the comparative economy of various 
methods of applying power for locomotion on railways, and particu- 
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