XVII.—On the Fossil Flora of the Radstock Series of the Somerset and Bristol Coal Field (Upper Coal Measures)

Abstract

My attention for the last few years having been specially directed to the vertical distribution of the Carboniferous Fossil Flora, it is my intention to publish a series of papers dealing with this subject.While carrying on these investigations it has been necessary, in addition to visiting public and private collections, to visit several of the coal fields for the purpose of collecting specimens, as in almost no case have the smaller and less attractive species been secured, and, as a rule, only what strikes the ordinary collector as being “a fine specimen” is preserved, to the exclusion of many less striking but often more valuable examples. Hence our public collections, and, with few exceptions, also our private collections, give a very imperfect idea of the richness of the flora of the Carboniferous Formation of Britain.