the projecting ends of some trunks (of Stigmaria) which lay horizontally in a bed of clay, extending along the southern bank of the rivulet which separates the townships of Putsey and Tong, and which is exposed in several places, it excited no little surprise to find traces of these fibres proceeding from the centre cylinder in rays through the stratum in every direction, to the distance of twenty feet." He further inferred that these fibres or rootlets "belong to the trunks in question, and, consequently, that the vegetable grew in its present horizontal position at a time that the stratum was in a state capable of supporting its vegetation, and shot out its fibres in every direction through the then yielding mud."[1][2]
Though the evidence on this head is common to all the coal-fields of Great Britain, and can be so readily obtained in many localities, the subject did not engage much attention until Mr. William Edmond Logan,[3] examining the coal measures of Glamorganshire and Carmarthenshire, was not only enabled to confirm the views of Mr. Steinhauer, but also to ascertain (in 1833) the important fact that all the coal-beds of that district reposed on such beds. When the Geological Survey entered upon the examination of the Coal-measures in the vicinity of Swansea in 1837. Mr. Logan pointed out the Stigmaria beds as constantly beneath the coal.[4] In verifying the beautiful maps and sections of the western portion of the South Welsh coal-field, which, with a generous love for the advancement of knowledge. Mr. Logan presented to the Geological Survey, and which were subsequently published by it, abundant opportunities were afforded for ascertaining the truth of this view, one still further confirmed, as might have been anticipated, by the general examination of the whole coal-field of that portion of Great Britain. The Survey in its progress among many other coalfields of the country, has always observed similar facts, and hitherto, including South Staffordshire, the connexion between coal and Stigmaria beds has, with few exceptions, and many of these doubtful, been found constant.
Having had occasion to visit nearly all the Coal-measure districts of Great Britain, from those of Scotland on the north to those of Somersetshire on the south, inclusive, I twice visited the South Staffordshire coal-field, and in all the cases where opportunities were afforded for examining the beds beneath the coal, found Stigmaria in them occurring as in their relative places of growth. Dr. Joseph Hooker in 1847, (then botanist to the Geological Survey,[5]) having directed his attention at that time especially to the structure of Stigmaria, and having had occasion, therefore, to examine into the subject with much detail, found these Stigmaria beds common;[6] Mr. Dawes, of Southwick House near Birmingham, who has given so much attention to the fossil botany
- ↑ American Philosophical Transactions, new series, vol. i.
- ↑ Steinhauer, Henry. 1818. On fossil reliquia of unknown vegetables in the coal strata. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, 1: 265-297, pls. 4-7. (Wikisource contributor note)
- ↑ Now Sir W. E. Logan. Director of the Geological Survey of Canada.
- ↑ It was not until February 1840 that Mr. Logan communicated his knowledge of this circumstance to the Geological Society of London, in a paper entitled "On the Character of the Beds of Clay immediately below the Coal-Seams of South Wales, and on the Occurrence of Boulders of Coal in the Pennant Grit of that District." This memoir was published in the Transactions of that Society, vol. vi., 1842.
- ↑ An appointment held by Dr. Hooker until his Botanical Mission, for the Government, to India, towards the end of 1847. The results of Dr. Hooker's researches are published in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, vol, ii, part 2, p. 431, in a paper entitled "On some Peculiarities in the Structure of Stigmaria."
- ↑ Subsequently Professor A. Ramsay (Local Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain) and Mr. Warington Smyth (Mining Geologist to the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom) examined the Stigmaria beds in their official visits to the district.
