4o6 STATE OF FOSSIL PLANTS 
We shall further illustrate this point, by a brief 
description of the manner in which the remains 
of vegetables are disposed in the Carboniferous 
strata of two important Coal fields, namely, those 
of Newcastle in the north of England, and of 
Svvina in Bohemia, on the N. W. of Prague. 
The Newcastle Coal field is at the present 
time supplying rich materials to the Fossil Flora 
of Great Britain, now under publication by Pro- 
fessor Bindley and Mr. Hutton. The plants of 
the Bohemian Coal field laid the foundation of 
Count Sternberg’s Flore du monde primitij\ the 
publication of which commenced at Leipsic and 
Prague in 1820 . 
“ In those varieties which go under the name of Cannel, Parrot, 
and Splent Coal, the crystalline structure, so conspicuous in fine 
caking coal, is wholly wanting ; the first kind of cells are rarely 
seen, and the whole surface displays an almost uniform series of 
the second class of cells, filled with bituminous matter, and se- 
parated from each other by thin fibrous divisions. Mr. Hutton 
considers it highly probable that these cells are derived from the 
reticular texture of the parent plant, rounded and confused by 
the enormous pressure, to which the vegetable matter has been 
subject.” 
The author next states that though the crystalline and uncrys- 
talliue, or, in other terms, perfectly and imperfectly developed 
varieties of coal generally occur in distinct strata, yet it is easy 
to find specimens which in the compass of a single square inch, 
contain both varieties. From this fact, as also from the exact 
similarity of position which they occupy in the mine, the difier- 
euces in difterent varieties of coal are ascribed to original dilfer- 
ence in the plants from which they were derived. Proceeding^ 
of Geoloijlcal Society. Lond. and Edin. Phil. Mag, 3rd Series, 
Vol. 2. p. 302. April, 1833. 
