Nothing is more remarkable in connection with these bodies than their uniformity of structure and form over so great areas and throughout so great thickness of rock, and the absence of any other kind of spore-case. This is more especially noteworthy in contrast with the coarse coals and bituminous shales of the Carboniferous, which usually contain a great variety of spores and sporangia, indicating the presence of many species of acrogenous plants, while the Erian shales, on the contrary, indicate the almost exclusive predominance of one form. This contrast is well seen in the Bedford shales overlying these beds, and I believe Lower Carboniferous.[AN] Specimens of these have been kindly communicated to me by Prof. Orton, and have been prepared by Mr. Thomas. In these we see the familiar Carboniferous spores with triradiate markings called _Triletes_ by Reinsch, and which are similar to those of Lycopodiaceous plants. Still more abundant are those spinous and hooked spores or sporangia, to which the names _Sporocarpon_, _Zygosporites_, and _Traquaria_ have been given, and some of which Williamson has shown to be spores of Lycopodiaceous plants.[AO] [AN] According to Newberry, lower part of Waverly group. [AO] _Traquaria_ is to be distinguished from the calcareous bodies found in the corniferous limestone of Kelly's Island, which I have described in the "Canadian Naturalist" as _Saccamina Eriana_, and believe to be Foraminiferal tests. They have since been described by Ulrich under a different name (_Moellerina_: contribution to "American Palæontology," 1886). See Dr. Williamson's papers in "Transactions of Royal Society of London." The true "Sporangites," on the contrary, are round and smooth, with thick bituminous walls, which are punctured with minute transverse pores. In these respects, as already stated, they closely resemble the bodies found in the Australian white coal and Tasmanite. The precise geological age of this last material is not known with certainty, but it is believed to be Palæozoic.