On Fossil Fungi from the Lower Coal-measures of Halifax

Abstract

In a previous communication to this Society, read at the Wakefield meeting, on October 28th, 1878, we placed on record a list of plants whose remains have been discovered in the Lower Coal Measures of the parish of Halifax. At that time the only representative in our possession of the great group of Fungi was a small fragment of the mycelium of some undetermined species, for which, as for the other specimens, we were indebted to Mr. James Binns. Since then, Mr. Binns’s indefatigable industry has been rewarded by the discovery of additional examples of fossilised fungoid growths, which, though scarcely in sufficient perfection for complete identification, have many interesting characters so well preserved as to be deserving of a detailed description. The specimens are exhibited in three microscopic slides, showing sections of carboniferous plants, cut and prepared from the “nodules” or “coal-balls” described in our former paper. On the first slide we have a transverse section of the petiole of a fern, as well as a section, also transverse, of a portion of what appears to be a branchlet or rootlet of some other plant, but which from its fragmentary character has not yet been determined. The fungus is confined to the latter part of the preparation, but it may not be amiss to note in passing that the fern is evidently Zygopteris Lacattii of Renault, or, as Professor Williamson prefers to term it, Rachiopteris Lacattii. A single fibro-vascular bundle, composed of xylem and phloem elements, occupies the center …