The American Geologist. January, looi. 
POSSIBLE NEW COAL-PLANTS ETC., IN COAL. 
PART III. 
By AV. S. Gresley, Erie, Pa. 
Plates II-VIII. 
Reference to and Remarks on the Fignres in Plate IT. 
Fig. I. Portion of a cluster or patch of seed-Ilk^ bodies, partly in 
plan and partly in section, embedded in a fracjnieiit of or- 
dinary' commercial anthracite (Carboniferous) from Peni-'- 
sylvania. The name or number of the vein or seam, as well 
as location, is not known. 
Fig. 2. Horizontal section of one of the objects — pods or seeds 
(? megaspores) in fig. i. In reality the spotted aspect of 
the contents of these black-bordered bodies should be 
spoken of as clear, black, compact anthracite as a matrix 
to hundreds if not thousands of minute gray specks. 
Fig. 3. Magnified appearance of the ? microspores — seed contents — 
of these little ? pods. 
Remarks on the foregoing. Whatever these fructifica- 
tions represent they appear to be oblong in form rather than 
circular. Along the lower right and along the bottom of the 
specimen the pods are seen in oblique section, on account of 
the breaking of the coal. Since the blank area "a" shows a 
different horizon in the coal from that in which the fossil re- 
poses, it is quite reasonable to suppose that the seeds lie be- 
neath it, and not less closely packed than seen higher up in 
the fig. near "b." Is there not in the pose of these bodies a 
suggestions of symmetry in form or arrangement, as opposed 
to a disposition resulting from scattering or accidental ac- 
cumulation. While the various pods are not seen to possess 
connection by stalks, there is nevertheless among them indica- 
tion of such in the shape of coaly filamentose appendages or 
inter-twinings suggesting that the fossil represents seeds 
syncarpous in form rather than individually scattered or ac- 
cidentally buried here in a mass together. In this fossil I 
see nothing to suggest a cone-derivation for these spores, 
^lay they not have belonged to a water plant? 
Other, but smaller and less preserved specimens of very 
similar seeds have been met with in the same coal ; the exact 
*For earlier papers of this series see A.mkkic.\.n Geologist, Feb. 1899, 
Get. 1S99, and July, 190(). 
