scholarly journals XVI.—On the Fossil Plants of the Kilmarnock, Galston, and Kilwinning Coal Fields, Ayrshire

1895 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kidston
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Plants ◽  
South West ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Coal Measures ◽  
Coal Fields

The tract of land embraced in the area from which the fossils have been derived, that form the subject of the present Memoir, extends in an easterly direction from Saltcoats to Newmilns, a distance of about 19 miles. At both extremities, the Coal Measures narrow down to under half a mile wide at Saltcoats, and about a mile broad at Newmilns. The greatest width is found towards the centre of the field, where in a northeast and south-west direction it is over 12 miles broad.

scholarly journals III. On the structure and affinities of fossil plants from the palæozoic rocks.— II. On spencerites, a new genus of lycopodiaceous cones from the coal measures, founded on the lepidodendron spenceri of Williamson

1897 ◽  
Vol 189 ◽  
pp. 83-106 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
New Genus ◽  
Present Knowledge ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Coal Measures

The fossils which form the subject of the present paper are Cryptogamic strobili showing evident Lycopodiaceous affinities, but differing in important points from other fructifications of that family, so that it appears necessary to establish a new genus for their reception. The specimens are derived from the Coal-measures of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and are calcified, the internal structure being thus preserved in considerable perfection. As our present knowledge of the forms in question is entirely due to the researches of the late Professor W. C. Williamson, it will be necessary to give a short historical summary of the results which he attained, before going on to my own observations.

V.—On the Fossil Flora of the Staffordshire Coal Fields

1892 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Kidston
Keyword(s):  
Geological Structure ◽  
Fossil Flora ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Coal Field ◽  
Geological Features ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Coal Measures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Coal Fields

The present paper is the second of the series dealing with the Fossil Flora of the Staffordshire Coal Fields. As in previous memoirs, I give a short sketch of the Geology of the coal field, merely for the purpose of indicating the relationship of the beds to each other, from which the fossils have been derived.Various memoirs dealing with the geological structure and resources of the Potteries Coal Field have already appeared, but in these the names applied to the different groups of strata which compose the Potteries Coal Field have generally special application to the local geological features, and do not treat of the Coal Field in its wider relationship, when considered as only forming a part of the Coal Measures as developed in Britain. A similar course has usually been taken in the published memoirs of other British Coal Fields, which makes a comparison of their relative ages, from the data given, very difficult.Although the Mollusea have usually been collected and examined, from their great vertical distribution—in some cases extending throughout the whole range of carboniferous rocks—they as a whole afford little data for the determination of the divisions of the Coal Measures, and unfortunately the fossil plants appear to have received little attention when the memoirs of the various coal fields were being prepared.

scholarly journals XVIII. On the organization of the fossil plants of the coal-measures.—Part I. Catamites

1871 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 477-510 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
De Novo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fossil Flora ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Inverted Position ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One ◽  
Coal Measures

A few preliminary words may he necessary to prevent misunderstanding respecting the claims and objects of the following memoir. When I entered upon the investigation of which it records the results, I found, in the writings of various British and foreign authors, a copious Calamitean literature; hut the widest discrepancies prevailed amongst them both as to facts and to inductions. I therefore determined to pursue the study of this group of fossils as if de novo, to record the facts which I observed, and to draw from those facts alone such inferences as seemed legitimate, both facts and inferences being in a certain sense, and so far as was possible under the circumstances, new and original. But it necessarily follows that some of these facts and inferences are not absolutely new, though many of them, I think, will he found to he additions to our knowledge of the subject; whilst others, though not new, have presented themselves to me in a light different to that in which they have been regarded by my able predecessors in the study. Such being the object of the memoir, I have not deemed it desirable to include in it a record of all the observations made by preceding writers. As a rule I have only referred to them when the discussion of some moot point rendered such a reference necessary. The fundamental aim of the memoir is to demonstrate the unity of type existing amongst the British Calamites. Brongniart, Dawson, and other writers believe that there exist amongst these plants two types of structure, the one Cryptogamic and Equisetaceous, the other Exogenous and Gymnospermous; on the other hand, Schimper and Carruthers regard the whole as Equiseceous, affording an example of the diversity of opinion on fundamental points to which I have already referred. Of course, before arriving at their conclusions, Brongniart, and those who adopt his views, had fully apprehended the exogenous structure of the woody zone of the Calamite, which is further illustrated in this memoir. The separation of each internode into vertical radiating plates of vascular and cellular tissues, arranged alternately, was familiar to Brongniart, Unger, and other early observers. Cotta regarded the cellular tracts (my primary medullary rays) as medullary rays ; but this interpretation was rejected by Unger, and the same divergence of view on this point has recurred amongst subsequent writers. Unger also noticed what I have designated secondary medullary rays, but at a much more recent date Mr. Carruthers disputed their existence. In their 'Fossil Flora of Great Britain,' Lindley and Hutton gave very correct illustrations of the position of the roots of Calamites relatively to the stem ; and yet for years afterwards some of their figures reappeared in geological text-books in an inverted position, the roots doing duty as leaves ; so far was even this elementary point from being settled. The true nature of the common sandstone form of Calamites, viz. that they are inorganic casts of the interior of the woody cylinder from which the pith has been removed, has been alike recognized by Germar, Corda, and Dawes; but they referred the disappearance of the cellular tissues of the pith to inorganic decay which took place subsequently to the death of the plant. It appears to me that the condition in which we find these cellular tissues affords no countenance to this conclusion. They are as perfectly preserved, when present, as any of the other tissues of the plant. Their inner surface, nearest the fistular cavity, presents no appearance of death and decay, but of rupture and absorption, which I conclude has occurred during life,—a different hypothesis from that adopted by my predecessors, and for which my reasons will be assigned in the memoir. The labours of Mr. Binney are referred to in the text. He figured the longitudinal internodal canals, but was disposed to believe that they had merely formed passages for vessels. He gave, however, excellent figures of the woody wedges, the primary medullary rays, and the cellular medulla, with its nodal septa or diaphragms .

scholarly journals On the structure and affinities of fossil plants from the palæozoic rocks. II. On spencerites , a new genus of lycopodiaceous cones from the coal-measures, founded on the lepidodendron spenceri of Williamson

1898 ◽  
Vol 62 (379-387) ◽  
pp. 166-168 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Genus ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Coal Measures

The fossils which form the subject of the present paper are Cryptogamic strobili, showing evident Lycopodiaceous affinities, but differing in important points from other fructifications of that family, so that it appears necessary to establish a new genus for their reception. Two species are described, one of which ( Spencerites insignis ) is already known to us from the investigations of Williamson, who named it first Lepidostrobus insignis , and afterwards Lepidodendron Spenceri while the other ( Spencerites majusculus ) is new.

scholarly journals XIII. On the organization of the fossil plants of the coal-measures. —Part III. Lycopodiaceæ (continued)

1872 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 283-318 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
New Genus ◽  
The Other ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Extended Study ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Coal Measures ◽  
The Relationship

In the last memoir which I laid before the Royal Society I described a number of forms of Lepidodendroid plants from the Coal-measures, without making any material attempt to ascertain the relationship which they bore to each other. I now propose to carry the subject somewhat further, and to show that some of these apparently varied forms of Lycopodiaceæ merely represent identical or closely allied plants in different stages of their growth. The discovery of some remarkable beds in Burntisland, by George Grieve, Esq., and his persistent kindness in supplying me abundantly with the raw material upon which I could work, have enabled me to do this in a manner, at least, satisfactory to myself. Upon the geology of these remarkable beds I will not now enter, beyond saying that they appear to have been patches of peat belonging to the lower Burdiehouse series, which are now imbedded in masses of volcanic amygdaloid. The stratum, where unaltered by contact with the lava, is little more than a mass of vegetable fragments, the minute structure of most of which is exquisitely preserved. The more perfect remains that are capable of being identified belong to but few types. The most abundant of these are the young twigs of a Lepidodendron , portions of the stem of a Diploxylon , stems of a remarkable Lycopodiaceous plant belonging to my new genus Dictyoxylon (but which, for reasons to be stated in a future memoir, I propose to unite with Corda’s genus Heterangium , under the name of H. Grievii ), and fragments of Stigmaria-ficoides . Along with these occur, but more rarely, several other curious Lycopodiaceous and Fern stems, and those of an articulated plant, which I believe to be an Asterophyllites ; also some true Lepidostrobous fruits and myriads of caudate macrospores belonging to the Lepidostrobi . The first point to be noted is that all the Lepidodendroid branches are young twigs. No one example of a large stem has been found presenting exactly the same structure as these small branches, which, as already stated, are so abundant. On the other hand, all the Diploxylons are large branches or matured stems. These facts at once suggested the inquiry whether the two plants referred to might not be complementary to each other. A careful and very extended study of a large number of specimens has convinced me that such is the case. I have made more than a hundred sections of the two forms, and the result has been a remarkably clear testimony that the Lepidodendra are the twigs and young branches of the Diploxylon -stems. I am also led to the conclusion that the Lepidostrbi , with their peculiar macrospores and microspores, belong to the same plant. I will examine each of these forms in detail.

scholarly journals II. On the organization of the fossil plants of the coal-measures.—Part III. Lycopodiaceæ

1872 ◽  
Vol 20 (130-138) ◽  
pp. 199-203
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Tissue ◽  
Igneous Rocks ◽  
Single Bundle ◽  
Epidermal Layer ◽  
Vascular Cylinder ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Similar Series ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Coal Measures

An outline of the subject of this memoir has already been published in the Proceedings in a letter to Dr. Sharpey. In a former memoir the author described the structure of a series of Lepidodendroid stems, apparently belonging to different genera and species. He now describes a very similar series, but all of which, there is strong reason for believing, belong to the same plant, of which the structure has varied at different stages of its growth. The specimens were obtained from some thin fossiliferous deposits discovered by Mr. G. Grieve of Burntisland, in Fifeshire, where they occur imbedded in Igneous rocks. The examples vary from the very youngest, half-developed twigs, not more than 1/12 of an inch in diameter to arborescent stems having a circumference of from two to three feet. The youngest twigs are composed of ordinary parenchyma, and the imperfectly developed leaves which clothe them externally have the same structure. In the interior of the twig there is a single bundle, consisting of a limited number of barred vessels. In the centre of the bundle there can always be detected a small amount of primitive cellular tissue, which is a rudimentary pith. As the twig expanded into a branch, this central pith enlarged by multiplication of its cells, and the vascular bundle in like manner increased in size through a corresponding increase in the number of its vessels. The latter structure thus became converted into the vascular cylinder, so common amongst Lepidodendroid plants, in transverse sections of which the vessels do not appear arranged in radiating series. Simulta­neously with these changes the thick parenchymatous outer layer becomes differentiated. At first but two layers can be distinguished—a thin inner one, in which the cells have square ends, and are disposed in irregular vertical columns, and a thicker outer one consisting of parenchyma, the same as the epidermal layer of the author’s preceding memoir. In a short time a third layer was developed between these two.

scholarly journals VI.—On the Fossil Flora of the Staffordshire Coal Fields

1889 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 317-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kidston
Keyword(s):  
Small Extent ◽  
Fossil Flora ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Coal Field ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
North East ◽  
Extreme North ◽  
Coal Measures ◽  
Coal Fields

On the Fossil Plants collected during the Sinking of the Shaft of the Hamstead Colliery, Great Barr, near Birmingham.The area comprised in the county of Stafford embraces five coal fields—I. The Goldsitch Moss Coal Field, in the extreme north-east of the county.II. The Cheadle and Churnet Valley Coal Field.III. The Wetley and Shafferlong Coal Field.IV. The Coal Field of the Potteries.V. The South Staffordshire Coal Field.The three first mentioned are of small extent, and as I know little of their fossil flora they are omitted from this series of papers on the Carboniferous Flora of the Staffordshire Coal Fields.I, however, devote a separate communication to the fossil plants met with while sinking the shaft of the Hamstead Colliery, Great Barr, as a considerable part of the rocks passed through during this operation is clearly Upper Coal Measures, not Permian, as has been generally stated. The palæontological evidence, therefore, becomes of special importance in determining the age of the red shales occurring in the upper part of this sinking, which have been usually mapped as Permian.

XIV. On the organization of the fossil plants of the coal-measures.—Part X. Including an examination of the supposed radiolarians of the carboniferous rocks

1880 ◽  
Vol 171 ◽  
pp. 493-539 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Ash ◽  
Entire Group ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Outer Bark ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
Thin Cylinder ◽  
Large Tree ◽  
Coal Measures

In 1865 my friend Mr. Edward Wunsch, of Glasgow, made the discovery of some thin carboniferous shales imbedded in volcanic ash at Laggan Bay, in Arran. These beds have already been described by their discoverer, and their fossil contents referred to by Mr. Binney, Mr. Carruthers, and Sir Charles Lyell. From within a very limited area the bases of more than 13 large erect stems of carboniferous trees have been extracted by Mr. Wunsch, the most important of which he has kindly placed in my hands. In the summer of 1877 we conjointly superintended some quarrymen, who tore up large portions of these strata with the result, I believe, of obtaining a fair knowledge of the nature of these beds and their contents. The trees certainly stood where they originally grew; most of them consisted of a thin cylinder of the outer bark, which was deeply fissured longitudinally but exhibited no true Sigillarian flutings or traces of leaf-scars. The interior was in most cases filled with volcanic ash, but in a few instances by vegetable débris introduced from without; and in one specimen, imbedded in the vegetable mass, are several decorticated Diploxyloid vascular axes of very old stems. These have been referred to as young growths that sprang up within the bark-cylinder; but such is not the case. Each one is not only decorticated, but is large enough to be the vascular axis of the large tree within which the entire group occurs, and where they are mixed up with fragments of the similar vascular axes of Stigmaria and other plants.

scholarly journals I. On the organisation of the fossil plants of the coal-measures; Part XVI

1889 ◽  
Vol 45 (273-279) ◽  
pp. 438-440
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Bundles ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Coal Measures ◽  
Made In

In this memoir the author first calls attention to detached observa­tions made in his earlier memoirs relating to the manner in which a medullary axis is developed in the interior of each of the primary vascular bundles of the Carboniferous Lycopodiacæ.

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