The impressions of various kinds of plants are frequently, I might say always, found in some of the strata lying over coal; but more particularly in a stratum of earthy slat, which, in my History of Fossils, page 168. Species IV. I have synonymed _Schistus terrestris niger carbonarius_, and which always lies immediately upon the coal-stratum, not only in the coal-pits of this kingdom, but of many other parts of Europe, _e.g._ France, Saxony, Bohemia, Silesia, _&c._ Most of these impressions, my Lord, are of the _herbæ capillares et affines_, the gramineous, and the reed tribes: but, however, among them many rare and beautiful impressions undoubtedly of vegetable origin, and impressed by plants hitherto unknown to botanists, are not unfrequently met with. Besides these, my Lord, found over coal-pits, there are likewise found in some parts of this kingdom, as at Robinhood’s-bay in Yorkshire, Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, _&c._ many curious impressions of the fern tribe in regular nodules of iron-stone; and, in the latter place, not only impressions of plants, but even the cones or iuli of some kinds of trees are met with, very perfect and fair, and curiously imbedded in masses of iron-stone. [Illustration: _Philos. Trans. Vol. L._ TAB. V. _p. 229_. _J. Mynde sc._ ] The most part of the impressions of ferns, grasses, _&c._ are easily recognizable, they so minutely tally to the plants they represent. Others indeed, tho’ they do not exactly answer any known species, yet have characters so distinctly expressed, that they are easily arranged under their respective genera[139]. Therefore I shall not trouble your Lordship with any further remarks on all such, but shall only touch on those elegant and extraordinary impressions, probably of unknown vegetables, above-mentioned: for that they are the parts and impressions of vegetables, I think clearly evinced, if we attentively and with a philosophical mind consider them, and reflect on the various circumstances, which attend them in the places, where they now lie buried. I have therefore the honour, my Lord, to exhibit the drawings of seven such extraordinary impressions, and the fossiles themselves, for your Lordship’s and this learned body’s inspection (_See_ TAB. V.). The impressions figured Nº. 1. is from Mr. Mytton’s collieries at Drilt, near Oswestry, in Shropshire; as are also those figured Nº. 2, 4, and 7: they are found sometimes two feet in length, and are generally covered with a thin crust of coal. The specimina Dr. Woodward exhibits, Catalogue B, pages 106, 107. specimina _q._ 22. and _q._ 32. are analogous to this, tho’ not exactly the same. The Doctor’s fossiles were from Haigh in Lancashire; and he imagines the impressions to be made by vegetables of the fir kind. Volckman also, in his _Silesia subterranea_, tab. 22. fig. 2. figures a branch with a rhomboidal work on it, and with three long narrow leaves, which seems akin to this impression.