It appears that in general each bed of coal is accompanied by the remains of a somewhat limited amount of species. Their number, particularly in the most ancient beds, is scarcely more than eight or ten. In other cases the number is more considerable, but rarely more than thirty or forty. In the same coal-basin each layer often contains several characteristic species which are not met with either in the beds above or below. Thus, there are sometimes small local or temporary floras, each of which has given birth to layers of coal. The quantity of carbonaceous and other matter required to form a bed of coal is immense. Maclaren has calculated that one acre of coal three feet thick is equal to the produce of 1940 acres of forest.[4] The proportion of carbon varies in different kinds of coal. Along with it there is always more or less of earthy matter which constitutes the ashes. When the earthy substances are in such quantity that the coaly deposit will not burn as fuel, then we have what is called a shale. The coal contains plants similar to those of the shales and sandstones above and below it. Underneath a coal-seam lies the Underclay, containing roots only, and representing the ancient soil; then comes the Coal, composed of plants whose roots are in the clay, with others which have grown along with and upon them, in a manner precisely similar to the growth of peat at the present day; while above the coal is the Shale, marking how mud was laid down on the plants, and bearing evidences of vigorous vegetation on neighbouring land, from which currents brought down the fine sediment, mingled with broken pieces of plants.
The total thickness of coal in the English coal-fields is about 50 or 60 feet. In the Mid-Lothian field there are 108 feet of coal. Coal-beds are worked at 1725 feet below the sea-level, and probably extend down to upwards of 20,000 feet. They rise to 12,000 feet above the sea-level, and at Huanuco, in Peru, to 14,700.[5] It is said that the first coal-works were opened at Belgium in 1198, and soon after in England and Scotland; it was not till the fifteenth century that they were opened in France and Germany.
The following calculations have been made as to the extent of the coal formation in different countries, and the amount of coal raised:—[6]
| Countries. | Square Miles of Coal Formation. | Annual Production of Coal in Tons. |
| Great Britain and Ireland | 5,400 | 65,887,900 |
| British North America | 7,530 | 1,500,000 |
| United States | 196,650 | 5,000,000 |
| Belgium | 518 | 8,409,330 |
| France | 1,719 | 7,740,317 |
| Prussia and Austria | —— | 4,200,000 |
| Saxony | 30 | 1,000,000 |
| Russia | 100 | 3,500,000 |
| Japan, China, Borneo, Australia, etc. | —— | 2,000,000 |
| Total Produce of the World | —— | 99,237,547 |
The total quantity of coal annually raised over the globe appears thus to be about 100 millions of tons, of which the produce of Great Britain is more than two-thirds, and would be sufficient to girdle the earth at the equator with a belt of 3 feet in thickness and nearly 5 feet in width. The coal-fields of the United States are nearly forty times larger than those of Great Britain.
Roscoe gives the following estimated quantities of coal in the principal countries:—
| Countries. | Average Thickness. No. Feet. | Tons. |
| Belgium | 60 | 36,000,000,000 |
| France | 60 | 59,000,000,000 |
| British Islands | 35 | 190,000,000,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 25 | 316,400,000,000 |
| Great Appalachian Coalfield | 25 | 1,387,500,000,000 |
| Indiana, Illinois, Western Kentucky | 25 | 1,277,500,000,000 |
| Missouri, and Arkansas Basin | 10 | 739,000,000,000 |
| North America (assumed thickness over an area of 200,000 square miles) | 20 | 4,000,000,000,000 |
Unger enumerates 683 plants of the coal-measures, while Brongniart notices 500. Of the last number there are 6 Thallogens, 346 Acrogens, 135 Gymnosperms, and 13 doubtful plants. This appears to be a very scanty vegetation, as far as regards the number of species. It is only equal to about 1/20th of the number of species now growing on the surface of the soil of Europe. Although, however, the number of species was small, yet it is probable that the individuals of a species were numerous. The proportion of Ferns was very large. There are between 200 and 300 enumerated. Schimper thinks there are 7 species congeneric with Lycopodium found in the coal-measures. The following are some of the Cryptogamous and Phanerogamous genera belonging to the flora of the Carboniferous period:—Cyclopteris, Neuropteris, Odontopteris, Sphenopteris, Hymenophyllites, Alethopteris, Pecopteris, Coniopteris, Cladophlebis, Senftenbergia, Lonchopteris, Glossopteris, Caulopteris, Lepidodendron (Lepidostrobus, Lepidophyllum, Knorria), Flemingites, Ulodendron, Halonia, Psaronius, Sigillaria and Stigmaria, Calamites (Asterophyllites and Sphenophyllum), Noeggerathia, Walchia, Peuce, Dadoxylon, Pissadendron, Trigonocarpum.
Ferns are the carboniferous fossil group which present the most obvious and recognisable relationship to plants of the present day. While cellular plants and those with lax tissues have lost their characters by the maceration to which they were subjected before fossilisation took place, ferns are more durable, and retain their structure. It is rare, however, to find the stalk of the frond completely preserved down to its base. It is also rare to find fructification present. In this respect, fossil Ferns resemble Tree-ferns of the present day, the fronds of which rarely exhibit fructification. Hooker states that of two or three kinds of New Zealand Tree-fern, not one specimen in a thousand bears a single fertile frond, though all abound in barren ones. Only one surface of the fossil Fern-frond is exposed, and that generally the least important in a botanical point of view. Fructification is sometimes evidently seen, as figured by Corda in Senftenbergia. In this case the fructification is not unlike that of Aneimidictyon of the present day. Carruthers has recently detected the separate sporangia of Ferns full of spores in calcareous nodules in coal ([Plate I. Fig. 5]). These have the elastic ring characteristic of the Polypodiaceæ, and in their size, form, and method of attachment, they are allied to the group Hymenophylleæ. The absence of fructification presents a great obstacle to the determination of fossil Ferns. Circinate vernation, so common in modern Ferns, is rarely seen in the fossil species, and we do not in general meet with rhizomes. Characters taken from the venation and forms of the fronds are not always to be depended upon, if we are to judge from the Ferns of the present day. There is a great similarity between the carboniferous Ferns of Britain and America; and the same species, or closely allied species of the same genera as those found in Britain have been met with in South Africa, South America, and Australia. In the English coal-measures the species are about 140. The Palæozoic flora of the Arctic regions also resembles that of the other quarters of the globe. Heer, in his account of the fossil flora of Bear Island,[7] enumerates the following plants:—Cardiopteris frondosa, C. polymorpha, Palæopteris Roemeriana, Sphenopteris Schimperi, Lepidodendron Veltheimianum, L. commutatum, L. Carneggiannum, L. Wilkianum, Lepidophyllum Roemeri, Knorria imbricata, K. acicularis, Calamites radiatus, Cyclostigma Kiltorkense, Stigmaria ficoides, etc., Cardiocarpum ursinum, C. punctulatum, besides various sporangia and spores.