582 
ME. E. W. BINNEY ON SOME LOWEE-COAL-SEAM EOSSIL PLANTS. 
Description of No. 1 Specimen. 
The first specimen intended to be described in this communication is from the thin 
seam of coal marked * in the lower coal-measures of Lancashire arranged in the vertical 
section previously given, and is from the same mine from which the specimens described 
by Dr. Hooker and myself were obtained. It was found associated with Calamodendron, 
Halonia, Sigillaria, Lepulodendron , Stigmaria, Trigonocarpon, Lycopodites, Lepidostrobus , 
Medullosa , and other genera of plants not yet determined in the order of relative 
abundance in which they have been just named. 
A portion of a similar specimen of fossil-wood obtained by me from the same locality, 
on analysis* gave 
Carbonate of lime . . 
.... 76-66 
Carbonate of magnesia 
.... 12-87 
Sesquioxide of iron 
.... 4-95 
Sulphate of iron . . . 
. . . . 0-73 
Carbonaceous matter . 
.... 4-95 
The stratum lying immediately above the seam of coal in which the specimen occurred, 
generally termed the roof, was composed of black shale containing large calcareous 
nodules, and for a distance of about 2 feet 6 inches upwards was one entire mass of fossil 
shells of the genera Goniatites, Orthoceratites, Aviculopecten, and Posidonia. 
The beds in the vicinity of the coal occurred in the following order, namely, 
yds. ft. in. 
1. Black shale with nodules containing fossil shells 0 2 6 
2. Upper seam of coal enclosing the nodules full of fossil-wood .006 
3. Fire-clay floor full of Stigmaria 020 
4. Clay and rock 200 
5. Lower seam of coal 0010 
6. Fire-clay full of Stigmaria. 
The fossil-wood occurred in circular, lenticular, and elongated and flattened oval- 
shaped nodules, varying from an inch to a foot in diameter, the round and uncompressed 
specimens being in general small, whilst the flattened ones were nearly always of a large 
size. No fossil shells were met with in the nodules found in the coal itself, although, as 
previously stated, they were very abundant 
in the nodules found in the roof of the 
seam, which there rarely contained any 
remains of plants. The large nodules of 
10 to 12 inches in diameter, when they 
occurred, swelled out the seam of coal 
both above and below as in the annexed 
woodcut, fig. 1. 
* Por this analysis I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Hermann. 
Fig. 1. 
