long experience of the coal-fields of Lancashire and Cheshire. He assisted in the discovery of the Torbane Hill mineral or Boghead Cannel, a deposit once notorious as a subject of litigation, and more recently as a bone of scientific contention.
Binney died on December 19, 1881. Etheridge said of him: "He was a man of the highest honour and remarkably outspoken; his sturdiness and strength of character being rarely equalled." Binney was the discoverer of some now famous fossils, notably Dadoxylon (now Lyginodendrori) oldhamium, and Stauropteris oldhamia. His best known work is the monograph, Observations on the Structure of Fossil Plants, in four parts, published for the Palaeontographical Society, from 1868 to 1875. Thus his work on coal-plants overlapped that of Williamson.
The first part is on Calamites and Calamodendron—the names are used in the old sense, for Binney kept up Brongniart's distinction, though apparently not convinced of its validity. In this memoir he described the "cone of Calamodendron commune" now known as Calamostachys Binneyana.
Part II, on Lepidostrobus and some allied cones, is remarkable for the demonstration of heterospory in several species.
Part III, on Lepidodendron, deals partly with stems referred to L. Harcourtii, but now separated as L. fuliginosum. He also describes the structure of a Halonia and is led to the conclusion that it is the root of Lepidodendron. This view has not found favour, but our old ideas about Ulodendron and Halonia have been so upset of late, that everything seems possible!
Part IV is on Sigillaria and Stigmaria, the "Sigillaria" described being S. vascularis, since identified with Lepidodendron selaginoides , or L. vasculare, if we maintain Binney's specific name.
Binney was not a great theoriser. His object was rather to provide material for the botanists, he being essentially a geologist. This he did admirably, for his monograph is illustrated by magnificent drawings from the hand of Fitch, the famous botanical artist.
Binney stood more under the influence of Brongniart than did his successor Williamson.
