DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR 

PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85-E 

llESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN 

COALS OF ·HIGH RANK 

BY 

DAVID WHITE 

Published l\1arch 25, 19~4 

PART E OF PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85, ~~CONTRIBUTIONS 

TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1913" 

WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1914 
CONTENTS. 

Introduction ..............•............................................................................. 

Resins in coals of low rank .............................................................................. ·. 

Concentration of resins in coals .......................... , ............................................... . 

Effects of resin concentration ................. c •••••••••••••••••• _ •••••••• _ •••••••••••• _ •••••••••• ___ •• _ ••• 

The obliteration of the resins ........................ · ... _ .. _ ............. _ ........ _. __ ... _._ .. __ .. __ .. __ .. _ 

Res.ins in Paleozoic plants and coals .............................. · ..................... _ ........ ___ .. _ ... . 

Conclusions ............. : ............................................... _ .. · .................. __ . __ ._ ... . 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PI,ATE IX. Fragments of bituminous coal showing carbonized wood, etc ........ _ .. : ... __ .............. _. _ .. 

X. Bedding plane of coal from Exeter, IlL ............. _ ... _ ......... _ ........ _ ..... , ............. . 

XI. Resin lumps in Paleozoic coals ......... _ .. _._ ........... _ ........ _ .. _ ............. _ .......... . 

XII. Fragment from thin parting in coal from Colchester, IlL .............. __ .......... __ ............ . 

XIII. Resinous casts in-stems or petioles .............................. ~ ........... -............ _ ...... . 

XIV. Threadlike resinous casts in carbonized woods .............................. ___ ........... _ ..... . 

!! 

Page. 

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96 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH RANK. 

By DAVID WHITE. 

INTRODUCTION. 

~rho theory that coal is but peat, mainly of swamp types .of formation, that bas been transformed by normal geologic processes seems to have been completely demonstrated, thpugh it is 

not fully accepted by n1any geologists and chemists. Examinations have shown that the coaJ 

substt'uwe is made up of plant debris, more or less deco~posed and altered, mingled with and 

perhaps permeated by the now hardened but once liquid products of organic decomposition. 

Such being the case, we 1nay conclude that all the par.ts and products of the plants were originally contributed to the peat formn.tion and, either as fragmental i:emains or perhaps as chemical 

products of the. decotnposition of portions of the vegetal substance, may have entered ~nto the 

composition of the peat. The evidence shows that varying proportions, in places nearly all, of 

the contributed plant materials were structurally obliterated before the peat-forming process 

terminated. 

Naturally, in the process of building up peat those plant parts and products which were 

most resistant to the decomposing agents, principally bacteria and fungi, would survive longest 

and, other things being equal, Would be n1ost easily recognized in the undestroyecl debris remaining in the coal. An1ong these decay-resisting products are the resir1s, wa.-xes, spore covers, cuticles, seed coats, n.n.d bast of the plants of nmnerous kinds that are· contributed to the peat. 

Plants of types that produce resins and waxes are present in every region where peat is 

now in process of formation. Their fossil ren1ains are present al~0 in nearly every swamp 

that is found buried in the formations of later geologic ages, and in the low-rank coals found in 

these formations. Yet, because the presence of resins .in the coals of higher Tank has not been 

sufficiently dmnonstrated, it is believed by many, perhaps by most geologists and chemists, and 

even by some pn.leontologists, that resins never entered into the con1position of these coals; that 

the higher-rank coals of all ages owe their very differences in rank to differences in the types of 

the plants ft·onl which they were forn1ed, the absence of resin-producing plants being regarded 

as one of tho conspicuous characteristics of the floras producing these coals; and that the great 

coal-fol'.lning floras of the Carboniferous period, to which the bituminous and higher-rank coals 

o.f n1ost p1nts of the world belong, were destitute of resin-bearing plants. It is also urged by 

many foreign writers that the coals of high rank have not at any ti.n1e existed as peats. 

The fact that the presence both of the remains of resin-bearing plants and of resin itself i11 

tho high-rn;nk coals of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic formations has not been generally recognized 

is due to tho nature of the evidence rather than to the lack of it. The purpose of the present 

pnpcr is (1) to show thn,t resins have been contributed to the high-rank coals of the Cretaceous 

nnd Tertiary periods as well as to the coals of low rank which are characteristic of those periods; 

(2) to point qut the evidence that the Carboniferous floras were possibly as richly productive of 

roBins or resinous ·substances as the floras of later periods; and (3) to demonstrate, with 

illustru.tions of n1aterial both common and unique, the presence of abundant resinous material 

in Paleozoic coals. Observations as to the physical changes in the resins consequent on the 

nlteration of the coals to successively higher ranks are given. Incidentally the paper sets forth 

further proof (which appnrently is not superfluous) of the origin of high-rank qoals as peats. 

65 
66 . CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1913. 

RESINS IN COALS OF LOW RANK. 

The occurrence of fossil resins in the lignites of the Cretaceous period is lmown to all who 

have Closely observed these fuels. They are present in almost all deposits of these lignites and 

are in some places so abundant as to constitute an appreciable portion of the coal. These resins 

have been derived, for the most part at least, from coniferous trees that have been contributed 

to the original peat from which the lignites or coals of higher rank were formed. 

As ordinarily observed, without the aid of the microscope, the resins consist of very irregular lumps ranging from the smallest particles to fragments over an inch in diameter. Usually the 

larger pieces are more or less elongated and variously flattened or shapeless. Sometimes they 

are found in _their original positions with reference to the remains of the trunks, branches, or 

organs which bore them as surface exudates or to cover wounds, but generally they appear 

to be scattered in a medium of more or less promiscuously mingled plant debris or vestiges, all 

cemented in a dark humic matrix ("carbo humin"), though in fact the debris is apt to be more 

or less distinctly stratified and assorted as to kind, size, and state of preservation in the strata 

of the coal bed. Thus the resins are much more abundant in some layers of the coal than in 

others, according to the kinds of ingredient plant material contributed to form these layers 

and the· conditions attending their deposition in the peat swamp. The conditions of deposition control~ed both the extent of decay of the variable plant debris and the disposition of the 

decomposition products, portions of which were usually carried in solution by water from the 

areas of peat formation. 

The resins are generally yellowish, brownish, or amber-colored, translucent, and vitreously 

conchoidal in fracture, though some of the material is pale yellow and apparently granulose in 

texture. As is well known, the amber of the arts and most of the copal of commerce are merely 

fossil resins, the greater part of the trade supply of amber having been produced by several 

Tertiary species of pines now found fossil in the rocks bordering the Baltic Sea in eastern Prussia. 

Substances regarded by certain authors as fossil resins have been described under many 

names, some of which follow: 1 Amber, ambrosille, ajkite~ ambrite, berengelite, bucaramangite, 

briicknerellite, caproline, chemawinite, duxite, dinite, euosmite, fichtelite, ged!tnite, glessite, 

guayaquillite, hatchetine, hartite, kranzite, j aulingite, konlite, koflachite, leucopet_rite, middletonite, muckite, neudorfite, piauzite, pyroretin, phylloretin, retinite, retinellite, refikite, rosthornite, riimanite, reussinite, scheererite, schleretinite, succinite, schraufite, sieburgite, simetite, 

walchowite, xyloretinite. 

By far the greater part of these resins or doubtful supposed resins are from coals of Cretaceous and 'Tertiary ages or from peats. · 

Although at some localities and in certain layers of the lignites and subbituminous coals 2 

small lumps of resin may be so numerous as to be conspicuous on the bedding planes or cross 

fractures of the coal, these are, after all, insignificant ~ quantity as compared with the resin in 

particle~ of microscopic size contained in the same layers or even in layers that reveal no resin 

at all to the unftided eye. These microscopic fragments are present in varying amounts in 

practic~lly all. the low;rank coals of Cretaceous or Tertiary age that have been microscopicaHy 

examined. In some places they are so abundant as to impart a yellowish or brownish color to 

the layer. The relative amounts of these resins and resin compounds affect certain important 

qualities of the fuels, as will later be noted. The microscopic resins are numerous in kind and 

mode of occurrence, having been deposited in the cells and vessels of wood·, bark, leaves, and 

seed coats and in the outer enyelopes of spores al).d pollen grains. In the plant world of to-day 

they are produced by many different kinds of vegetation belonging to widely different classes of 

vascular plant life. A large percentage of the dry wood of certain conifers consists 'of resin .. On 

the other hand, many types of plants, especially among the angiosperms, produce little or none. 

1 See Leonhard, Gustav, Grundziige der Mineralogie, 2d ed., pp. 381-383, 1800; also Dana, J.D., Mineralogy, 6th ed., pp. 996-1024, 1892. 

2 As defined by M. R. Campbell (Econ. Geology, vol. 3, p. 134, 1908), the subbituminous coals are distinguished from the bituminous by their 

mode of weathering, their less developed jointing and cleavage, and their higher moisture. On exposure to the atmosphere the iumps check irregularly, the resultant fragments, however small, being irregular in outline and having rough faces instead of cleavage planes. Weathering is characterized (very conspicuously in the longer-exposed fragments) by separation of the coal ill plates parallel to the bedding, this process continuing to 

invisible limits. They were formerly called "black lignites." The name lignite is now restricted by the United States Geological Survey to 

brown coals. 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF -HIGH RANK. 67 

CONCENTRATION OF RESINS. IN COALS. 

The principle proposed by many of the older paleobotanists and emphatically reiterated by 

Renault and Bertrand, that the vestiges or remains of the plant structures contained in the coals 

represent, in general, those parts of the plant or those kinds of tissue which were most resistant 

to decay, is exceptionally well illustrated by the resins. It is well known that the delicate and 

soft structures of the plant, such as the parenchymatous and medullary tissues, are the first 

to disappear in the putrefactive processes necessary to the formation of peat, and that according to the duration of these processes, _which is a variable factor, and to the agents, mainly 

bacterial, engaged, the decomposition becomes more and more complete, extending to the 

more resistant elements or tissues. Thus the decay of the less resistant starchy and cellulosic 

compounds is followed by that of the more resistant; the wood succumbs before the corky 

bark; the proteids disappear in advance of the waxes, and so on, until in the mo~t "mature" 

and ''amorphous" 'peats little is left except the most indestructible parts, such as the resin 

particles, fi:agments of cuticles that are composed of very resistant substances, and the resinous 

or waxy coverings of spores and pollen grains. Of these persistent portions of the plant the 

resins generally survive to the last the subaqueous biochemical or putrefactive processes concerned in the formation of peats. 

From the foregoing statements it will be seen at once that the amount of resin in a coal, 

though varying of course according to the kinds of plants contributed to the formation of 

the n1other peat, is largely determined by the extent to which the decay of the vegetal debris 

progressed. For, as the resin is t,he most resistant to decay, it obviously will, other things 

being equal, survive to form the largest percentages in those peats (coals) in which the decay of 

the plant debris has gone farthest. The successive decay of the less resistant enveloping and 

associn.ted tissues gt·adually frees the resin particles, which, with the disappearance of the 

other plant materials, settle together in an accumulation, really a natural concentration. Hence 

a n1n.ture or "amorphous" peat formed by the far advanced decay of plants that have a com-· 

pa.ratively low resin content may actually be much more resinous, as the result of such-concentration, than another peat of the xyloid type, composed largely of wood which, though relatively 

rich :in resin, has undergone comparatively slight decay. 

What is said above as to the genesis of peats .n1ay be affirmed also of lignites, sub bituminous 

co1ds, and coa]s of higher grades, all of which are but lithi:fied and altered peats. . 

In 1nost coals, especially the woody types, the percentage in yolume of the resin still resting 

in the original cells or vessels in a piece of wood is further relatively increased by the mere loss 

of moisture and the other cell contents, and by the contraction and collapse of the cell walls 

under pressure, with the attending chemical changes. The great reduction in volume thus 

produced in tho wood is accompanied, in the low-rank coals, by no observed shrinkage of the 

"rosin"-like resins.' In the xyloid lignites-that is, -lignhes consisting largely of undestroyed 

or but pu.rtly decayed frag~1ents of trunks, branches, or twigs-the. amounts of resin n1ay be 

very little if the woods represented were originally not very resinous; but in some coals highly 

resinous woods have been so, reduced without obliteration of the cells that the volumetric percentage of resin therein has been n1ore than doubled. 

EFl!.,ECTS OF RESIN CONCENTRATION. 

It has often happened during the forn1ation of thick deposits of peat in a swamp that the 

water has in places been for a time too deep to be occupied by vascular plants growing in place. 

In these pools, sometimes small and irregular in forn1, where the water was temporarily open 

nnd the supply of oxygen was greater, the decomposition of the vegetal debris falling into the 

water could, if the water was not too stagnant, go so far as to leave only great quantities of resinous matter n1ingled with spore 'and pollen exines, wax residues, and cuticles. The same condition could exist also beneath the ordinary shallow-water cover in portions of the swamp if the 

oxygen supply w~s sufficient and the rate of ·accession of fresh plant debris was not,too great. 

Layers of such matter may be recognized in many coals, though usually they are thin and 
68 CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1913. 

obscured by underlying or superimposed, more or less coarse vestigial1natter. They form the 

'"'fatty" parts of the bed. When the deeper water body was restricted, steady, and sufficiently 

stagnant to preclude both' the inwash of considerable mineral sediments and the complete 

destruction of the organic vestiges, and the spore, pollen, wax, and resin concentrate was therefore low in ash and comparatively unstratified, the resultant" sapropelic" deposit is canneloidthat is, it forms canneloici layers or lenses-.:...in the lignites, and these 'layers or beds, when the 

lignites ·were changed to coals of subbituminous and higher ranks, became cannel coals and oil 

rocks, though the. latter, being generally formed in water bodies of greater extent and supposedly carrying innumerable algre of low orders, and containing more mineral n1atter, are 

usually high in ash. The origin of the cannel type of coal is, in its essential features, the same 

without regard to the geologic age of its formation or the rank of the fuel, though the mutual 

proportions of the characteristic components, exines :and resins/ n1ay vary fron1 place to 

place and from epoch to epoch. The concentrated resins and the resinous and waxy exines 

of the pollen a~id spores, variously mingled with n1icroplankton vegetal clements, impart to 

the coals of the cannel and oil-rock group their high volatile, high heating, and high illuminating 

qualities and their tendency to fuse, even if they are of low.rank, the resins and waxes being 

chanicteris~ically rich in hydrogen, th~ element of greatest calorific value, and relatively low 

in oxygen, the great heat neutralizer 2 in coals. The canneloid coal is high in volatile matter 

merely because its component pl~nt. ren1ains or products are not only high in volatile but 

resistantly so. · 

The relative percentages of hydro-gen and oxygen in the waxes and resins, as compared 

with the percentages of those elen1ents in wood, peat, and lignite, are shown in the following 

table: 3 · 

Analyses of 'wood, resin, coals, etc. 

Avuii- c. H. 0. N. able by- H:O. 

drogen. 

---------- 49.31 6. 29' a 44.20 (a) 0.77+ 55.65 6. 48 36.43 1. 44 1. 93 1. "\\' ood ................................................. , ............................... . 2. Peat .................................................................................. . 56.46 5. 48 a 38.06 (a) .73+ 74.86 5.32 18.51 1. 31 3.01 t ~!?~~:~t:.:: :.: :·::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 78.61 9.52 11.77 8.05 6. Wa..x ............. : .................................................. ' .................. . 80.33 13.07 6.6 12.25 7. Bituminous coal. ..................................................................... . 82.91 5. 70 . 9.90 1. 49 4. 46 8. Bituminous coal ...................................................................... . 87.52 5.26 7.22 4. 36 9. Semibituminous coaL ................................................................. . 91.62 4.85 2.32 1. 21 4.56 10. CanneL .............................................. : ................................ . 84.52 7. fi7 7. 81 6.69 11. Torbanite ............................................................................. . 84.56 10.99 a 4. 45 10. 43+ 

a Nitrogen included with oxygen. 

1. Petersen and Schadler, Liebig's Annalen, vol. 17, p. 179, 1836. Average of 24 woods. 2. Roth, Justu~ Allgemeine und.ch~mische Geologie, vol. 2, p. 642. Average of 10 analyses. 3. Kaufmann!.-!'·· G., K.-k. ge0l. Re1chsanstalt Jahrb..;1 vol. 15, p. 283, 1885. 4. Clark~.F· vv ., The data of geochemistry, 2d ed.: u.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 491, p. 714, 1911. Average of 10 analyses. 5. Gies, vv. J., Science, vol. 25, 1897, p. 462. Resin, Amboy (Cretaceous) clays, Staten Island, New York. 6. Cornuba wax. . 7. Clarke, F. W ., op. cit., p. 718. Average of 40 analyses of coals from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. 

8. Bureau of Mines Bull. 2; Upper Cretaceous coal1 coking cJal, Sopris, Colo. FLxed carbon (in "pure coal"), 62.3 per cent. 9. Idem, Pocahontas coal, .J<_jlkhorn, W.Va. FLxen carbon (in "pure coal"), 85.75 per cent. 10. Idem, Lesley, Johnson County, Ky. Cannel coal. 

--

0.14+ 

.18 

. 29 

. 81 1. 98 

.58 

. 73 2.09 

.98 

2.46+ 

It will readily be seen that the presence of resins and spore and pollen exines n1ust have 

its effect on all coals, the result being In ore conspicuous whe1~ the ·proportion of cannel-fonning 

elements is greater. A high hydrogen-oxygen ratio ("pure coal" basis) in a coal below the smnianthracite rank is to be "regarded as indicating a more distinctly (( bitunlinous" type of coal, 

for the bitum~ns are especially characterized by their very high hydrogen and their correspondingly low oxygen content .. In the latter respect certain waxes approach the bitumens even 

more closely than do the resins, as is indicated by the wax analysis in the table. In this 

connection mention should be made of Hatchett's conclusions, 4 reached in 1804, that the resins 

and waxes were the sources of the bituminous quality in coals. 

'The term "resins" is here used in the broad sense, though in the descriptions of fossil speci!pens on later pages it signifies the characteristic 

"rosin "-like and amber-like resins. 

2 See White, David, The effect of oxygen in coal: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 382, 1909; Bureau of Mines Bull. 29, 1911. 

3 A larger series of ultimate analyses of coals <;>f varying ranks may be found for comparison in the bulletins just cited and in Bureau of ?!fines 

Bull. 22. 

4 Hatchett, Charles, Roy. Soc. London Philos. Trans., 1804, p. 385; 1806, p. 109. 

\' 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH RANK. 69 

THE OBLITERATION OF THE RESINS. 

It bas been urged elsewhere 1 that it is important when discussing the origin of coal to 

recognize the operation of two great and fundamentally distinct processes or stages. The·first 

process is the biochemical, which accomplishes the transformation of miscellaneous vegetal 

debris into pen,t. The second process, which follows or perhaps slightly overlaps the first, 

u.ntedati:ng the complete cessation of nnaerobic bacterial nction, is dynamo-chemical. Both 

processes are complex. Through the action of the dynamo-chemical agencies, apparently 

initiated and dominated in general by pressure but sometimes in1mediately controlled by 

contact-metamorphic heat, the peats have been transformed to lignites and coals of all higher 

ranks, being compressed, dehydrated, lithified, and partly devolatilized-that is, distilled. The 

prog1~essive loss of volatile matter, which is still going on in most coals, is marked in particular 

by the elimination of oxygen in amounts relatively so much greater than the accompanying 

losses of carbon and hydrogen as to accomplish, in effect, a concentration of these two great 

fuel-producing elements that becomes more and more noticeable until the fuel approaches the 

anthracitic rank. The elimination of the oxygen permits a most important increase of the 

calorific value of the coal. The physical changes accompanying the dynamo-chemical process-:-

that is, the effects of the pressure metamorphisn1-are found in the deformation of the plant 

remains, and the darkened color, reduction in volume, and increase of luster, jointing, friability, 

and even schistosity in the coal, as well as. of cleavage and silicification in the surrounding 

strata. . 

The progress of the dynamo-chemical process is most conveniently gaged by the extent· 

of the devolatilization (carbonization) of the fuel, as somewhat crudely determined by the 

conventional method of "approxin1ate analysis" of the coal, the result being expressed in the 

ru.tios of the fLXed carbon mid volatile matter. Neither the initial organic chemical c01npounds 

nor those actually existing in any coal are fully known. The end product of the dynamochemical process is the approximate elimination of the volatile matter, the residue being 

graphite or, under conditions of intrusive contact, coke. 

In the progressive transforn1ation of peats, lignites, and subbituminous coals to fuels of 

higher rank, what becomes of the resins and waxes~ For the answer to this question we are 

co.mpelled, for the present, to depend largely on optical evidence. 

The following observations relate, first, to the disappearance of the resins in the transfornlation of the Cretaceous and Tertiary coals. Later the question of the presence of resins 

in the coals of Paleozoic age will be considered. . 

Lump resins in widely varying amounts were found in all the lignites and subbituminous 

coals examined, though in many coals the pieces were very small. This is true of the xyloid 

lignites in the Fort Union Tertiary of North Dakota and :Montana, the Cretaceous lignites of 

the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Tertiary lignites of Aikansas and Texas, the subbituminous 

coals of the Cretaceous in the Denver Basin and in the Gallup district, New :Mexico, the Eocene 

coals of the Cascade regio).l of Washington, and the Cretaceous coals of the I-Ianna district 

of Wyon1ing. In all the coals of the lignitic and subbitu1ninous ranks the resins have been 

found to retnin the ordinary resin color, and apparently their other physical characteristics, 

although in some of the subbitun1inous coals the lun1ps show unmistakable effects of pressure, 

which hns distorted then1 and here and there partly squeezed ihmn into the joints of the bed. 

It is not probable, however, that the resins of these coals have remained wholly without chemical 

change fr01n their original composition, notwithstanding their typically resinous appearance. 

In the higher-rank coals-that ls, in those grading through the lower bituminous ranksthe resins are found to have changed very greatly, having evidently undergone both physical 

and chemical alteration. This is shown in general, first, by the darkening of the color to a 

smoky brown; later, by the further blackening, crackling, and shrinkage of the lumps, which 

at a still later stage appear to be reduced to dark brownish-black spongy or granular residues, 

and still later, if the observations are correct, to a thin, fine~ powdery black scale. The last state 

1 White, David, Econ. Geology, vol. 3, No.4, p. 303, 1908; U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 382, p. 62, 1909. 
70 CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1913. 

is diffieult of recognition, and its Ct)rrelation with tho resin lumps is not without question. 

This change of the resins, which constitutes in effect a reduction (carbonization) of the substance, appears to have proceeded rapidly at a stage less than. midway in the progress of the 

coals through the bituminous rank. 

The behavior of the resins in the coals that are undergoing the somewhat advanced stages 

' of dynamo-chemical alteration is suggestive· of the action of recent resins when heated. In 

the ~ghest ranks of the bituminous coals the resins are no longer recogniz~l;>le. as such· to the 

unaided eye, and the identification of. thei1· residues in these fuels is at the ·present tin1e 

wholly uncertain. They seem to have been practically obliterated, -and the phenomena of their 

disappearance strongly suggest a mode of devolatilization under conditions favoring the retention 

of at least a part of their carbon in the coal. It is probably safe to infer that in the redtiction 

of the resin, as well as in that of the other plant materials, the losses of oxygen are disproportionately large. The reduction of the resins appears to be coincident with a corresponding 

comparatively rapid deoxygenation of the coals themselves. 

Without giving detailed observations regarding the fuels in the various ccal fields, I will 

mention only a number of somewhat typical localities, where the successive stages in the 

alteration of resin ·may be well seen in the corresponding successive ranks of coal. It is understood that the "resins" here meant are the ordinary "rosin" -like or amber-like lumps. The 

rank of the coal will be; in a general way, shown by the accompanying percentage number, 

which indicates approximately the :fixed carbon ·of the coal on the "pure coal" basis (as.b., 

moisture, and sulphur free). 1 There is some variance in the degree of alteration in the resins 

at some mines and localities, just as there is variance (perhaps mutually corresponding) in the 

percentage of :fixed carbon at the same points. These variations may be due to local differences 

in the ~tresses, to the advantageous position of the fuel at a certain poiq.t with reference to a 

fold, or even to the comparative resistance of the enveloping strata. The coals here discussed 

are all of Cretaceous or Tertiary age. 

Among the subbituminous coals, in which the resins, though retaining their colors and 

general physical features, are more or less squeezed into the join:ts, especially in folded regions, 

mention may be made of the coals at Gallup, N.Mex.; Lafayette, Colo.; Renton and Centralia; 

Wash.; Red Lodge, Mont.; and. the Sheridan and fianna districts, Wyo. 

In the low-rank bituminous coals the results of the dynamic influences are more evident, 

thougb. there is but little visible evidence other than more advanced deforn1ation and local 

discoloration. Thus the resins are generally more apt to be squeezed into the joints or along 

the bedding planes, in some places spreading out in large thin scales, although most of the 

lun1ps seem to retain their characteristic resinous aspect, in the low-rank bituminous coals of 

the Canon City field, Colo. (for exan1ple, Coal Creek, Radiant, or Fremont, averaging about 

56 per cent fixed carbon); Shumway (55), Strong (56), Pictou and Walsenburg (58), .in the 

Trinidad field, Colo.; Roslyn, Wash. (58); and New Castle (58), South Canyon (58), Black 

Diamond (59), and Sunlig~t (59), in the Glenwood Springs field, Colo. In some of these coals 

the lumps and scales of resin are in places turned more or less sn1oky brownish. 

In the bituminous coals of slightly higher rank (fixed carbon averaging 60 per cent or a 

little higher) the resin lumps are not only deformed, being mostly flattened out as thin scales 

in the joints and bedding planes, but they have generally become of a dark sooty-brown color, 

most of them being more or less completely reduced to a brownish-black granular residue and 

some apparently to a mere black powdery film. The transitional stages from the smoky-brown or 

lighter-colored vitreous, conchoidal, semitransparent, .and son1etimes crackled lumps and scales to 

the reduced granular carbonaceous residues appear to be complete and abundantly illustrated. 

Examples of this later stage are found at Durango (Porter's), Colo. (61); the C. F. & I. mine at 

Crested Butte, Colo. (62); Carbonado, Wash. (62); Van Ifouten, N.Mex. (61); and Gulch, Colo. (63). 

In the coals of this rank (61 to 63 per cent fixed carbon in "pure coal") lumps retaining even 

1 These perc.entages, while probably fairly representative, are not to be regarded as showing with accuracy the average fixed carbon in the 

coal at the point mentioned. More exact estimates of the average percentages may be gained from the examination of the tables of analyses 

contained in Bulletin 22 of the Bureau of Mines. · 

• 
HESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH RANK. 71 

i.u part the typical resin aspect are rarely ,to be found, though the very· dark smoky-brown ·and 

largely reduced phases verging into the granular carbonaceous residues are seen at most of 

the localities mentioned. 

In coals of a still higher rank the resins are apparently obliterated .and no longer recognizable to the unaided eye. This is illustrated in· the high-rank bituminous coals of Eocene 

age at Fairfa..x, W a.Sh. (7 4); the Upper Cretaceous coal at Coal Basin, Colo. (76); the Eocene 

coni nt Mo.ntezu1na, Wash. (82); and the anthracites north of Crested Butte and at Floresta, 

Colo. In fact, I dq not recall observing any material retaining megascopic resinous secretions 

in the high-rank bituminous coals (65 to 68 per cent fixed carbon) in the vicinity of Tr~nidad, 

Colo. (Sopris, Starkville, Cokedale, and Engleville), ·though carbonaceous traces, probably correctly identified as resin residues, are present. Fragments may, however, rarely be present here, 

especially in u bony" layers of the coal beds. 

In c·ertain of the coal fields where the alteration of the coals is regional the disappearance 

of the resin n1ay be noticed in a restricted area, and even in a single very restricted coal group 

or possibly in a single bed, as, for example, in the Trinidad-Walsenburg-Raton field. In the 

Walsenbul'g district, at the northern end of this field, the.low-rank bituminous coals of Upper· 

Cretaceous age contain abundant resins, generally preserving their physical characteristics, 

though locally squeezed, but farther south along the same strata the resins are badly altered 

or apparently much reduced in the area of low-rank coking coal reached at I-Iastill.gs and Berwind, about halfway to Trinidad, while still farther south, in the vicinity of Trinidad, the resins 

in the snme coals are practically obliterated, the carbonaceous residues being seemingly lost in 

the. finely jointed, granular high-grade coking coal. Other excellent areas for study are the 

Glenwood Springs coal field (also Upper Cretaceous) and the vicinity of Crested Butte, both in 

Colorttdo, whe1·e the regional differences in the fixed carbon are strongly marked. Another good 

region for observation is offered by the Tertiary coal areas of the Cascade field, in Washington. 

My observations are less complete than is des;i.rable and need confirmation. This n1ay 

.easily be accon1plished by persistent and close field examination, which,should take particularly into view also the precise stages of resin reduction corresponding to the respective stages 

of n.lteration in the coals themselves. I-Iowever, the data now in hand appear to· show that 

when the ordinary types (humic) of bituminous coals approach a rank roughly indicated by 

the development of 59 or 60 per cent of fLxed carbon (upure coal" basis), the megascopic resins 

contained therein reach a critical,point, at which .they begin rapidly to lose their resinous aspect 

and suffer reduction; and that before the coal has been carried by the dynamo-chemical process 

to 65 per cent fixed carbon the resin darkens, crackles, and shrivels, losing its characteristic 

features and apparently becoming reduced to a small coaly residue. 

The period of n1arked ·alteration and reduction (carbonization) of the normal megascopic 

resins in the coals of Cretaceous and Tertiary age seems in general to coincide with ·that point 

in the devolatilization of the fuels which leads (other things being equal) to the developtnent 

of the qualities essential to the production of high-standard commercial coke. 

Whether the nucroscopic particles of r~sin still contained in the cells and canals of the· 

plant or strewn about, freed by the decay of the surrounding tissues, on the ancient peat and 

n1ud lnyers have sitnultaneously undergone the san1e alteration and reduction as is observed 

in the rendily visible lun1ps 'is yet to be determined by inicrosc<?pical examination. It seems, 

however, fnirly safe to assume that the internal resin secretions of the plants, which presumably are chenucally identical with the wound l'esins, have similarly and contemporaneously 

suffered reduction and carbonization. · · · 

The typict'tl coking quality, once developed, continues until the coal is carried approximately to the seuua.nthracite rank, or, 'apparently, as long as suffiCient volatile carbon and 

hydrogen re1nain in th..e f-H~L w:R~her resins. of any kind or any allied Sl!bstances survive 

during this period remains to be determined. Their persistence, except as coalified residues: 

tlll'ough the coals of semibitu1ninous rank seems highly improbable. In this cminection it 

23694°-14-2 
72 CONTRIBU1'IONS TO GENEHAL GEOLOGY, 1913. 

· will be remembered that the progressive deoxygenation of coals brought about by the dynamochemical processes results in the development in the higher bituminous ranks 1 of hydrogenoxygen ratios (dry coal basis) similar to the ratios· found in the resins. As already noted, 

the resins tend to impart a high hydrogen-oxygen ratio to the otherwise high-oxygen coals 

of the lower ranks, the highest ratios in these coals being found in the carrp.elo.id types. In 

the high-rank coals the high hydrogen-oxygen ratio nec~ssary for successful and practicable 

coking is ,developed in the process of normal progressive devolatilization. 

The period of coal· alteration that is marked by the reduction of the resins appears to 

comprehend also a "deadening" of the cannel coals associated in the same groups of strata, 

as is to .be expected. The apparent lack of cannel coals retaining their characteristic cannel 

qualities in the regions of semibituminous and higher-rank coals seems to be due to the reduction of the resins and other related canneloid elements. Beds or lenses, apparently deposited 

under cannel-forming .conditions and probably once cannels, are present in the regions of 

semibituminous and anthracite coals, but though they retain a semblance to their original ' 

aspect aild the massive conchoid.al structure of cannels they have lost the special cannel qualities and are· now often classed as "bone." I know of no occurrence of typical cannel coals 

or oil accumulations in formations and districts ·where the regional deyolatilization of the 

coals has brought the humic coals to the rank characterized by 70 per cent of fixed ca1·bon. 

A question to ·be determined by chemical investigation is whether the reduction or carbonization (presumably a smothered devolatilization) of the resins has not aided in the deoxygenation of the remaining substance of the coal. 

In areas like the Cascade coal field of Washington or the Glenwood Springs, Crested Butte, 

and Trinidad fields in Colorado, where in passing from one side of the field to another the coals 

are found to be progressively more and more altered through the dynamo-chemical process, 

·there is no evidence whatever to serve as the basis for a belief that the plants· growing in the 

district 'of low-rank co·als differed essentially either in kinds or in resin content from those contributed to the original peat in the district of high-rank coals. The coals," some of which are .. 

practically continuous from area to area, are accompanied by similarly formed underclays, 

mostly containing roots in place, are similarly layered in benches apparently similarly cmnposed, 

and are covered by shales or sandstones which, so far as observed, contain identical floras, thus 

showing approximate identity in the conditions of deposition of the fuel. It also must be 

remembered that the .high-rank coals are similar in their mechanical constitution to those of low 

rank, containing fully ~s much woody matter, either in its jetlike condition of coalification or 

as "mineral charcoal," or, on the other hand, fully as· much spore and vestigial material as the 

lower-rank coals in the same formation and basin. The progressive reduction (carbonization) 

of the cell walls, the dehydration of the remaining tissues, 11nd the reduction of the resins or 

allied substances have naturally produced a decrease in the size of the wo~d fntgmtimts, but it is 

probable that the other material in the coalhas suffered similar reduction, so that the propor-

. tions remain nearly the same. The progressively developed pressure cleavage, usually with 

more or less deformation, 'which on the whole. becomes more and more evident in the 1nore 

highly altered coals, not only tends to mask the texture of the woods, which are at the same 

time slightly reduced as the result of devolatilization, but tends in particular to crush and obliterate the minerai charcoal, which consequently contributes mainly to the dust and smut of the 

high-rank coal when it is mined and prepared for market. This is true also of the anthracites 

and other high-rankcoals of the Paleozoic coal fields. 

The observations as to the disappearance of the resins accord fully with the theory of the 

devolatilization (carbonization) of the coals as the result of thrust-pressure metamorphism, 

the coals being· n1ost altered, except in the vicinity o(intrusives, where the pressure has been 

most intense and longest sustained, with variable but increasing strains. 

1 U.s; Geol. Survey Bull. 382, pp. 53, 54, 1909. 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH HANK. 73 

RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLAN':rs AND COALS. 

The preceding discussion concerns mainly the coals of the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, 

in which resin-bearing types of vegetation are known to have been abundant, as is shown by the 

fossil renutins, and which, wherevei· they have not been too far altered by the dynamo-chemical 

process, are conclusively shown to contain resins of various kinds in microscopic deposits if not 

in plainly visible aggregations. We pass now to the consideration of the Paleozoic coals, in 

which the original occurrence as well as the present existence of resins has generally been doubted. 

~1:ost geologists t1rnd chemists seem inclined to the belief that the great differences which 

are n.l:most universally supposed to exist between the Paleozoic coals (the so-called "stone 

conls"), on the one hand, and the Tertiary and Cretaceous coals (generally taken for grnnted 

to be lignites or brown coals), on the other, are due mainly to differences in.the composition 

of the plants contributed to the formation of the coal in each great era. Prominent if not chief 

among these ~sstunod differences is the supposed absence of resins in the coal-forming vegetation 

of the n1ore ancient periods. The 'fact that in the apparent absence of resins visible to the 

Ulllliclocl eye the Paleozoic coals strongly contrast with the characteristic low-rank coals of the 

ln.tier epochs, in which resins n.re so commonly obvious or are at least nearly always to be found 

if sought, htts seOJnod strongly to support this theory. Tho persistent adherence to this conclusion is, howevet·, remn.rkn.ble in view of the wall-known occurrences in the younger for:rp.ations 

of whole m·en.s and groups of high-rank coals. Neither the ultimate nor the proximate analyses 

of the high-rank bitun1inous Tertiary and Cretaceous coals afford any criteria for a chemical 

distinction between these coals and those of the san1e rank but of Paleozoic age. · This circumstn.nce lut.nnonizes with the fact, well known to those having wide knowledge of conls of different nges, that n,t least very many specimens representing the higher ranks of Tertiary or 

~1:oso~oic coals a.re indistinguishable, to the unaided eye, from similar specimens of Paleozoic 

con.ls of the s11.me rank,. the identity of bedding, lnmination, jetty layers, charcon.l layers, and 

,\roody or minute debris being so complete that only by paleobotanic examination can the age 

of the sn:mple be detected. · The plant materials originallyforn1ing the high-rank Cretaceous and 

Terti.inry conls were not less resinous than those entering the coals of lower rank in the san1e 

geologic group nncl province. . 

The criteria w!J.ich serve as the basis for the belief, on purely paleobotanic grounds, that 

resins and waxes were present in the peat-forming vegetation of the Carboniferous period 

may be smu:marized as follows: 

l. The dmninant types of the Carboniferous vegetation, such as the lycopods, ferns, CalaDlar.inles, Cycn.dofilices, and Cordaitales, though mostly of lower orders than the don1inant types 

of the Cretn,ceous and Tertiary coal fields, are hardly inferior to the latter in magnitude nor in 

their highly deYeloped organization, as is shown by the anatomical structure of petrified 1nateria~ 

representing Jn~tny of the forms. A great number of the lycopods, Cycadofilices, and Calatnites were not only trees in size but were also provided with exogenous woody trunks and 

corticttl deYelopments equaling in complication of structure the plants of the present day. 1'he 

inference is ren.sonable and justifiable that the terrestrial vascular plants growing under si1nilar 

enviromnental conditions in the different geologic epochs have been subject to the same Yital 

principles, haYe carried on the same functions, and have been composed of similar plant cOinpounds, n:nd that they have accordingly contributed plant products, including carbohydrates, 

proteins, fats, oils, wa...~es, and resins, similar, if not essentially the same, both in variety and in 

chenlical cmnposition, in n1l the epochs of great coal formation. Evidence is also found in the 

presence of secretory canals and cells in the nearest living relatives of the ancie:q.t plants, and 

in the occun·ence :in certain cn,nnel con1s of microscopic bodies which, though untested chemically, 

hn.ve 11n aspect so resin-like as to lead to their interpretation as probably resins. 

2. 1'he microscopic 'studies carried on by Renault, Williamson, Scott, Zeiller, Seward, C .. E. 

Bertrand, and others, of petrified fragments of Carbonifero't1s plants, son1e of whiQh occur 

silicified or calcified in the midst of the beds of c~al, have revealed the presence, in most of the 
74 CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENJ?RAL GEOLOGY, 1913. 

Carboniferous· vascular plant types·,,of canals and cells that have been interpreted as secretory, 

though few of them have been regarded with confidence as resin-containing and none seen1 to 

have offered criteria decisive as to this point. It is worth while in this place to cite some of the 

most important paleobotanic data bearing on the problem. 

The Stigmaria roots which are so nearly omnipresent in the underclays of the Carboniferous 

coals and even in the layers of the coals themselves contain certain strands described 1 as "secretory." The Stigmaria are· the roots of Sigillaria and Lepidodendron. It is therefore interesting 

to note the presence of secretory cells filled with dark-brown residues, associated with the 

transpiration tracts in the cortical tissues of Sigillaria 2 found silicified in the Permian at Autun, 

France. The structures are regarded by Renault as" gum cells with sheaths" and by Seward 

as "secretory strands." Seward 3 notes the occurrence in Lepidodendron of a secretory zone 

outside of the cylinder of secondary wood, embracing an" association of small cells, large spaces, 

and a certain amount of dark-col~red material suggestive of tissue disorganization and secreted 

products." In the silicified material it is perhaps impossible to determine whether the residues 

noted in these fossil lycopods included resins. 

Among the Paleozoic ferns numerous sacs supposed to have been of a "secretory nature" 

found in the inner zone of the cortex of the trunks of Zygopteris ha.ve been described by Scott,4 

and "gum canals" in Psaronius. are pointed out by Zeiller. 5 The latter were the tree-fern 

trunks which bore· the typical Pecopteris fronds so abundant and. omnipresent. in the higher 

coal measures. 

In the Cycadofilices, which combine structures characteristic of the primitive gymnosperms, 

particularly the cycads, with others characteristic of ferns, especially the Marrattiaceie, secretory structures have been observed in many types and are perhaps present throughout the 

group; thus Scott 6 notes that in Lyginodendron, the best-known type of the group," sacs with 

dark contents, probably representing some kind of secretory o:rgan, are frequent in all the soft 

tissues of the plant." The occurrence of secretory glands at the apices· of the spines is characteristic of the fronds of this genus. In Ptychoxylon Renault 7 found in the outer cylinder of 

the cortex numerous elongated cells, many of them hypertrophied and filled with brown matter, 

"perhaps a gummy substance." The characters of the American material later to be described 

make it seem probable that these may qe resin cells.' ·"Numerous secretory canals much resmn- . 

bling the gum canals of recent cycads," and interpreted by both Renault 8 and Scott 9 as probably 

gum canals,.are scattered throughout the thick cortical tissues of both the trunks and the petioles 

belonging to the genus Medullosa. To this genus probably pertain the petioles to be described 

later in. this paper as .containing a resinous substance. Secretory sacs or canals have been found 

also in the thick cortical tissues of Cycadoxylon and the Poroxylon type, and "gum canals" 

are. reported as abundant and large in the hypodermal bands of Colpoxylon/ 0 • where they are 

&ometimes filled with a brown substance thought to be possibly resin. Likewise Retinodendron, 

. a type close to Cordaites, is said by Renault 11 to have abundant "resin tubes" and "secretory 

cells" in alterna~ing zones of the cortex. The Cycadofilices embrace many of the commonest 

fernlike genera of the Carboniferous, including N europteris, Alethopteris, Odontopteris, Callip~ 

teris, Linopteris, and Mariopteris. . 

Especially interesting is the fact that Renault 12 observed in the branches of Arthropitus, a 

type supposed to be related to Calamites, many short longitudinal cells containing dark-colored 

bodies resembling re.sins, and many tubes· interpreted by him as "gun1 reservoirs." The outer 

. t Seward, A. C., Fossil plants, vol. 2, pp. 158; 159, 1910. 

2 Renault, Bernard, Bassinhouilleretpermien d' Autun et d'Epinac, vol. 4) Flore fossile, pt. 2, pp. 222, 224, _Pl. XLI, ftgs. 9 and 10, 1896. 

· a Op. cit., pp. 114,.145, 146; 1~8, fig. 183. 

4 Scott, D. H., Studies in fossil botany, 2d ed., vol. 1, p. 315, 1908. 

5 Zeiller, Ren~, Bassin houiller et permien d'Autun et d'Epinac, vol. 1, Flore fossile, pt. 1, Pl. XXI, 1890. 

6 Op. cit., p. 368. 

1 op. cit., p. 322. 

s Idem, p. 295, Pl. LXX, figs. 1 and 2. 

9 Op. cit., pp. 434, 437. 

to Renault, Bernard, op. cit., Pl. LXVIII, figs. 2 and 7; p. 203. 

II Idem, Pl. LXXVII, figs. 10, 13, 14. 

12 Idem, Pl. XL VII, figs. 2, 3; Pl. XLVIII, fig. 2; Pl. LV 1 figs. 6, 7; Pl. LVI, figs. 6, 7; p. 91. 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH RANK. 75 

fleshy coats of the seeds of Cordaites are provided with canals which have been supposed to be 

intended for the storage of gum or tannin, and the parenchyma of the primary cortex of the 

trunks of the tree is said to envelop secretory sacs. · 

Mention should be made of the large canals and reservoirs and of unequal rounded granular 

b0dies in the cortex of Ifapaloxylon; of supposed gum cells near the nerve strands in Calamode.ndron and Dolerophyllun1; and particularly of the occurrence of wood cells containing products 

regoxded by Renault 1 as resinous, and of groups of cells full of "resin" in the large pith of the 

sten1s of Cedroxylon. 

Finally it is important to note the occurrence, as described by both Renault 2 and Zeiller,3 

of numerous "gmn tubes" filled with dark residues, associated with the sclerenchymatous hypodermul strnnds of the petioles known as :Myelopteris and l\1yeloxylon. The suggestion that these 

canals are possibly resin-bearing appears to be fully justified, as ~U be pointed out in the description of carbonized remains from l\1ontana, possibly belonging to the same genus. Before 

passing from the subject, it should be noted that the spore exines of the Paleozoic pteridophytes 

are generally believed, for good reasons, to have been protected by waxy, resinous, or gummy 

coverings like those of their living successo~s. 

l\1any of the structures noted above are· very likely mucilage or gum receptacles, but it is 

highly probable that some, at least, of the types were resin-secreting, and there is little doubt 

that they would have been so interpreted by paleobotanists had the occurrence of lump resins 

in the Carboniferous coals been fully recognized. , . 

For many years I have observed in most of the Paleozoic coals of moderate or low bituminous rank the presence of great numbers of slender, rigid, glossy, cylindrical, needle-like 

rods of varying sizes, longitudinally embedded in very many of the fragments of mineral charcoal ("n1other of coal"). Such carbonized fragments of wood are especially abundant in the 

Carboniferous coals of the interior basins, in places forming layers of considerable thickness. 

The slender rods, varying in diameter apparently according to the kind of tree, protrude from 

the 1uacerated edges of the wood like the ends of broken needles. When examined closely 

they are found to be discontinuous. (See Pl. XI, fig. 4.) Even when the surrounding tracheids 

or wood cells did not completely decay. away during the process of peat formation so as to 

expose thmn or leave then1 isolated, the collapse and reduction of the wood when partly macern.ted nnd under pressure was so complete and the wasted cell walls are so closely flattened 

that the slender parallel rods produce ridges where they lie near the surface of the "charcoal" 

frttgments, 1Vhich are usually reduced to a thin .scale. 

A typical example of a fragment of a compressed stem preserved as "mineral charcoal," 

from conl "No.2," near Ge.rlaw, in western Illinois, is shown in figure 1, Plate IX. This fragment, which is split ~long the bedding plane, is but a portion of large piece of carbonized 

wood over 2 feet in length and several inches in width, lying in the midst of a well-laminated 

con.l. Under the lens the very slender needle-like or rodlike casts are seen lying ·on or partly' 

freed in the longitudinal grain of the wood. Many of the casts come very obliquely to the 

surface, and son1e n.re exposed for long distances. Others appear only as ridges in the "charcoal" scale to which the surrounding collapsed, softened, and wasted woody tissues were reduced. 

Numerous broken fragments of isolated casts lie strewn among vestiges of cuticles and other 

comminuted. vegetal debris on the right, as may clearly be ·seen under the lens. A clearer 

presentation of the needle-like rods contained in this fragment of flattened carbonized wood 

is g.iven in the four times enlarged figure of a portion of the same specimen (Pl. XI, fig. 4). 

In the inspection .of this and the other figured examples of a common type of mineral charcoal 

the following points should be noted: (1) The needle-like rods lie in their original position in 

n.ud parallel to the grain (tracheids) of the log; (2) they were hard and terete before the partial 

tnaceration of the surrounding wood cells, or, conversely, the tracheids collapsed and rotted 

away, while the rods were hard and resistant to pressure; (3) they were resistant to the bio1 Op. cit., p. 368. 

s Renault, Bornard, Acad. sci. Paris Mem. sav. etrang., vol. 22, No. 10, p. 17, Pl. V, fig. 40, 1875. 

a Op. cit., p. 284, Pl. XXVII. 
76 CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1!)13, 

chemical agencies of decay, which liberated great nu1nbers of then1 to be washed or strewn 

about on the mud or peat surfaces; and (4) they appear to have largely retained their form 

and· their rigid though fragile character, while the peat has been altered by the dynamo-chemical 

process to coal of bituminous rank. These features leave no roon1 for doubt that the rods 

are .in fact but the casts or fillings of canals longitudinally traversing the tissues of the woods 

and petioles of some of the coal-forming plants. Their rigidity when existing in the fresh 

vegetation points to their nature as hard, brittle resins, gums, or waxes, but their resistance to 

the agents of decay and to the dynamic action argues ·against the interpretation of them as 

gums, while their mode of occurrence in internal canals points most strongly to their being 

resins instead of waxes. 

The aspect and mode of occurrence of the fragments of carbonized wood ("mineral charcoal") 

so common on the bedding pl~nes of coal is well shown in the piece ~f bitun1inous coal from 

the midst of the bed mined near Exeter, Ill., illustrated in figure 2, Plate IX. In this fragment, 

a part of which is shown enlarged four diameters in Plate X, the vessel casts, though of a type 

more slender than in the other specimen, are distinct. In some of the "charcoal" 1 fragments, 

like that in the upper left corner of the photograph, which nearly cover1 

the bedding plane 

of the specimen, the fracture is closely parallel to the grain; but several of the other )?ieces are 

either macerated or abraded obliquely to the grain, so that the vessel casts protrude from the 

wo:rn ends. It will be noticed further that many segments of the casts, completely released 

by decay of the wood, lie scattered here and there like fragments of broken needles. Some of 

them are but ,slightly moved from their original attitude as they were left by the decay of the 

surrounding tissues. Most of the large wood fragments on this piece of coal c01itain the needlelike vessel casts, though vestiges of wood in which none are.seen are also present here, as in 

very mapy specimens and in most coals. It is probable that in the older peat swan1ps, just 

as in those of to-day, the resinous woods were more resistant to decay than the other types 

and therefore more likely to escape decomposition. 

Many·specimens are found in which the decay of the wood has been practically complete, 

so as to free the casts entirely. A good exan1ple of such isolated and broken casts is shown 

in figure 3, Plate IX, and four times enlarged in Plate XII. In this· fragment, fr01n a thin 

bony layer in the coal at Colchester, Ill., the rods are mingled with comparatively smallnunlbers of large megaspore ~xines, minute fragments of cuticles, and scattered remains of the 

resinous or' waxy, very resistant envelopes of certain seeds, particularly Cardiocarpon, two 

of which are present on the frag1nent illustrated. The casts, which vary in diameter and 

probably belong to several species of plants, at first glance suggest sponge spicules, but their 

ready combustibility betrays their vegetal origin. The specimen illustrated, which is about 

a quarter of an inch in thickness, is somewhat minutely laminated, some of the laminm containing extremely thin layers of nearly an1orphous carbonaceous silt. Between some of these 

· laminm are thin lenses and streaks of jetlike wood, all very much flattened. The layer here 

represented contains, as already explained (p. 68), much cannel-fonning 1naterin.l, though the 

lamination with fine mineral sediment and stems gives it a "bony" character. 

Carbonized wood fragments containing terete, brittle, decay-resistant vessel fillings, such 

as those shown in the accompanying plates, are abundant in n1ost Paleozoic coals? nt least 

in the interior basins of the United States, except where they are too far nltered by dynanlochemical agencies. A slight curvation sometimes noted possibly indicates a degree of elasticity 

or toughness. in the original substance, but a degree of fragility in these :fillings is shown by 

the ready fracture of the casts isolated by the decay of the rest of the tissues in the waters of 

the peat-forming swamp. That the contents of the canals were hard and round when the fresh 

wood fell to the surface of the swamp is shown by the maintenance of their tereteness while 

the surrounding tissues were undergoing maceration and deformation in the peat. Their free 

combustion, apparently with high volatile matter, plainly shows that they were not produced 

by occupation of the vessels by fine silts or other inorganic mineral matter. Their hardness 

1 In another place (Bureau of. Mines Bull. 38, 1913) I urge that these "mineral charcoal" fragment'3 are not cinders n,or fragments, charred by 

burning at the surface of. the swamp. · 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH RANK. 77 

and n1oclerate rigidity at the time the woods d'ecayed show, on the other hand, that they .can 

not be lUerely hardened organic solutions occupying the canals after the woods became imnlersed in the swamp; otherwise they would have suffered deformation or perhaps would have 

again entered solution when freed fro1n the rotting tissue. The waste of the cell walls on 

account of chemical reduction and the collapse of 'the partly macerated cells under pressure to 

a thickness of one-fifth to one-fifteenth, or possibly less, of their original diameter bring the rods 

into pron1inence, even where they are not actually exposed at the surface of the carbonized 

wood, now generally reduced to a thin scale. In this way the cast material is effectually 

concentrated. ' · · 

A close exmnination of the casts under low n1agnification shows that they resemble very 

dark brown or slightly ·orange-brown vulcanized rubber, the fracture being conchoidal and 

s01newhat, vitreous. Under stronger n1agnification the casts are found to be composed of an 

oru.nge-russet or 1uore or less yellowish smnitranslucent substance. ·cross sections, rounded or 

oval in form, of an1ber-like substa,nce, sin1ilar to and probably identical with those composing 

the casts, are to be observed in thinly ground ·sections of coals from the same group, prepared 

and described by Thiessen, 1 and are regarded by him as probably transverse or oblique sections · 

of resin vessel casts. 

'rho cannel coals from the basal coal measures of J\1issouri and from the upper Pottsville 

in eastern ICm~tucky, examined by Thiessen, contain, in addition to the usual varied spore 

exines, 1nnnerous sn1all irregular lumps of highly refractive substa.nces slightly varying in their 

orange or yellow tones, which are interpreted by him, rightly, I believe, as resins. It will also 

be noted that in a recent important paper on the explosive elements in coals James Lomax 2 

has described the occurrence of several microscopic bodies which, on account of their form and 

aspect, he regards as resins~ , 

As in thq Cretaceous and Tertiary coals the resins have persisted in form recognizable as 

resins until the coals have advanced some distance into the bituminous rank, it follows th~t 

re1nains of resins, if they were ever present and if they were similarly resista.nt to the biochemical 

agencies of coal formation, should similarly be found in Paleozoic 'J:?ituminous coals of the same 

rank. 

Accordingly they should be present in such Paleozoic coals as those of western Illinois, 

Iowa, and western :Missouri. In 1908, immediately after an examination of the coals in several 

of the western coal fields, I was engaged in the eastern interior coal fields, where the comparatively low rank of the Paleozoic coals seemed favorable for resin survival. As a result of a 

close inspection,. resin in s1nall lumps was found. in the coal at several of the comparatively 

few 1nincs Yisited. · 

Lun1p resin was found in a dense, hard, bony layer in which very little woody matter was 

visible and the canneloid concentrates were n1ingled with a large percentage of mineral sedinlcnts at the :Rutledge 1nine, a few n1iles northwest of Ottumwa, Iowa. At the La Salle shaft, 

in tho eastern odge of La Salle, on the north~rn border of the Illinois coal field, the coal derived 

front bed "No. 2" (the bed fron1 which the wood shown in fig. l, Pl. IX, was taken) reveals 

a :few Slnn,:U :frn.grnents of resin.· One of these is shown, five tin1es enlarged, in Plate XI, figure l. 

The ~nute block, about 5 inches in cube, of typicallan1inated bituminous coal, shows at different 

levels two other frngtilents of resin, one of which, exposed on the "butt" of the coal, is seen 

silnilnrly enlarged in figure 3 of the san1e plate. 

During a cn.sual examination of the coal of upper Pottsville age at a small mine in one of 

the lower block coals near Brazil; Ind., the sn1all .but somewhat conspicuous fragment of resin 

shown :fiv-e times enlarged in figure 2, Plate XI, wn.s observed. It will be noted that the resin 

in this specimen, which con1es from the n1idst of the bed, has been squeezed along both the 

bedding and the joint planes, so that its cross section has a "step" structure. A vertical joint 

just to the left of the resin lun1p is indicated in the illustration by.the filling of narrow "white 

1 White, David, and 'l~hicsscn, Heinhardt, Tho origin of coal: Bureau of Mines Bull. 38, 1913. 

2 Inst .. Min. Eng. (London] ~L'rans., vol. 42, p. 2, 1911. 
78 CONTRIBUTIO.NS TO G:.b~NERAL GEOLOGY, 1913. 

scale," whose irregular line in the photograph is due to the uneven fracture of the coal and 

the obliquity of the view. The opening of the joint and the deposition of the salts are probably 

of late date, while the deformation of the resin, which is squeezed along the bedding and vertical 

joint planes., probably dates from the post-Paleozoic uplift. The deformation of the resin is 

exactly .comparable to that so familiar in the high-rank su'bbituminous and lower-rank bitunlinous coals of Cretaceous age in the western United States. 

· In all the speGimens noted in the Paleozoic coal fields in the upper Mississippi Valley the 

substance retains its russet-amber, vitreous, translucent, :resinous aspect, appearing exactly 

·like smne of the I~esins in the younger coals. One of the fragments from La Salle is. slightly 

yellowish, granular, and more .opaque tl;lan the others in the same fragment of coal. Another 

is somewhat irregularly pitt.ed or·hollowed, a:s is indistinctly shown in figure 1, Plate XI. The 

resin lumps in these coals are friable and have a conchoidal fracture. Fragments fron1 the 

Indiana specimen illustrated in figure 2, Plate XI, when burned on the platinum spoon by 

Chase Palmer, of the Geological Survey, were found to fuse readily, gradually turning brown, 

while emitting resinous od'ors. At higher temperatures they became dark and pitchy, emitting 

resin fumes before bursting into a light-yellow flame. A trace of grayish ash remained on the 

platinum after combustion. A very small quantity of this resin examined by David T. Day 

was. found to be· hardly ·soluble "in alcohol, th<;mgh it w·as partly dissolved in chloroform. 

As already remarked, no systematic search for resin in the Paleozoic coals of the eastern 

interior basin or any other Paleozoic region ~has been made. It is probable, however, that 

resins will be found to be widespread in those Paleozoic coals that are not too far altered, in 

accordance with the observations of the Tertiary and Cretaceous coals of corresponding rank. 

The amount of wound. or surface-exudate resin secreted by the Paleozoi~ plant types appears 

to have been small compared with that secreted by the later plants, but it is probable that 

the Paleozoic plants had ample canal storage. 

Regarding the probably resinous nature of the canal casts so abundant in many .of the carbonized woods in· the Paleozoic bituminous coals of the interior fields, as described and illustrated on previous pages, I have recently learned of criteria of a novel and interesting character. 

The occurrence of Paleozoic fossil plants on Big Spring Creek, 20 miles southeast of Lewiston, Mont., having been reported, specimens were, at my request, gathered in 1911 by Dr. A. C. 

Peale, of the United States National Museum, with whom was associated :Mr. A. C. Silberling. 

The material collected was found on examination to consist mostly of the rmnnants of very 

badly macerated fragments of ferns, lycopods, .and Calamarire, carbonized and confusedly mjngled with sufficient extremely fine gray argillaceous silt not only to destroy its value as coal, 

but even to impart to some of the layers a soiled, dark, sooty gray color. Though petioles of 

several types are abundant in this material, no filicoid pinnules are diStinguishable, they having 

apparently disappeared by decay. Carbonized stem fragments of Sphenophyllum, Asterophyllites, Calamites, and Lepidodendron are mingled with megaspore exines, sporangia, and 

seed coats of Cardiocarpon. . 

The strata of this vicinity are said by W. R. Calvert, \vho in 1911 made a reconnaissance 

examination of the geology of this part of Montana, to belong to the upper part of the Quadrant 

formation, the geologic age of ·which has been questioned. Numerous petioles, exhibiting the 

characteristic superficial features of Sphenopteris (Lyginodendron) hoeninghausii, associated. 

with Lepidodendron obovaturn in the collection show that at least this part of the Quadrant 

formation is of Pottsville (Westphalian) age.. · 

On examining the fossils from Big Spring Creek I was greatly astonished to see flat bunches 

of parallel, flexible, threadlike fibrils, suggesting the raveled edge of some textile fabric, protruding from the edges of the rock and from the ends of some of the carbonized plant fragments. A close examination of these singular :fibrils showed them to issue from 'the ends of 

carbonized fragments of certain narrow, slender stems or petioles, apparently of a :filicoid type, · 

that were most abundant in the coaly shale. The scalelik~ coaly residues of these petioles 

(as I prefer to regard them) are longitudinally traversed by the parallel fibrils, which are com-

," 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH RANK. 79 

pletely enveloped by the carbon, though between 1nany of the fibrils the .carbon, representing 

the remaining undestroy'ed substance of the petiole, is thinner than the diameter of a fibril; 

consequently the fibrils produce prominent ridges in the carbon. On account of the hardness 

and tenacity of the fibrils, they may not only be readily stripp.ed from the carbonaceous matrix 

but sotne of them may be pulled in segments of considerable length from the broken edge') 

of the shale. Segn1ents over 8 centimeters in length may be obtained without great difficulty. 

Tho aspect and 1nodo of occurrence of these most interesting features can, however, be best 

comprehended on exan1iuing the acc01npanying illustrations. 

In tho small fragment photographed natural size shown in figure 1, Plate XIII, is seen the 

carbonized residue of a petiole transversely crossing the shale fragment. The petiole evi .. 

dcntly was much macerated and is now flattened to a very thin layer, less than 0.3 millimeter 

thick, of glistening black, imperfectly cubical but quite friable coal. This is longitudinally 

traversed by the parallel fibers, whose continuity and strength have enabled them to tear a 

part of the petiole, on the left, from the adjoining shale. This part of the petiole is now held 

suspended by the ftbrils, which are still "in place." The appearance of the specimen is better 

shown' in figure 1, Plate XIV, photographed twice the natural size. Obviously we have here 

the hon1ologue of the needle-like casts of the canals already described as occurring in the flattened and reduced carbonized woods from the coals of the :Mississippi Valley. I:-Iowever, in 

tho :J\1ontana material, which is less altered, the fibrilrs are still somewhat flexible and tough. 

When the canal fillings are isolated the adhering fragments of coal and shale may be mostly 

removed by careful crushing or rubbing between the fingers, leaving the dark, threadlike casts 

free, whereupon, if long and unsupported, they are apt to droop slightly by their own weight, 

as shown in figure 3, Plate XIII,· and figure 2, Plate XIV. 

Tho parallelisn1 and regularity of the canal casts and their relation to the carbonized residues, which often lie compactly superposed in varying directions, are better seen in figure 2, 

Plate XIII, which represents a thin layer of the shaly bone. Examination of the .photographic 

enhtrgen1ent of a part of the same specimen, shown in figure 3, Plate XIV, shows the casts to 

be nearly cylindrical, though slightly variable in cross section. Notwithstanding a degree 

of flexibility (see fig. 3, Pl. XIII), which enables the threadlike casts to be bent and twisted 

to a certain extent, and a toughness which enables one actually to pull them out to the edges 

of the shaly bone (so friable is the environing coaly scale), they are brittle, usually fracturing 

squarely, though rninutely conchoidal. In many specimens the fragments of ~arbonaceous 

shale are, when broken, held together by the canal casts, as illustrated in figure 2, Plate XIV. 

In n1ost of the petioles the Jnaceration and decay of the plant tissues at the time of their deposition in the 1nudcly water of the swan1p were not so complete as to leave the casts without support. In other fragn1ents, however, as illustrated in figure 4, Plate XIV,. the decay extended 

to more resistant cortical tissues, so that the casts were left free and unsupported within the 

sheath 1naintained by the cuticle. This is shown not only by the nearly complete absence of 

environing coaly residue, but also by the lax; irregular attitudes of the released fillings of· the 

cnnals, which curve and ove.dap in slight confusion, although their general longitudinal direction is preserved. Frequently the casts were entirely freed by the decay of the stems or petioles, so that they are lOft isolated and drifted about in various positions, as is shown in portions 

of the same figure. It is to be noted tl~at the isolated and probably slightly drifted casts were 

at the tin1e of the deposition of the plant debris so brittle that they were broken into fragm~nts 

comparable to those of the isolated rods seen in the coals of illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Indiana, 

though in the Montana specimens they seem to have been slightly less friable and more flexible 

and are usually found in greater lengths where isolated and tangled in the surrounding clay or 

debris. I . 

Like the secretions from the coals of the Mississippi Valley already described, the Montana 

rods appear an1orphous, to the naked eye res01nbling vulcanized rubber. When freed from 

the surrounding carbon or adhering clay by gentle rubbing between the finge;rs or by treatment 

23694°-14.--3 
so CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1913. 

in hot nitric acid, the isolated threads 1nay be Inanipulated with ease and n1ounted for exa!n.ination under the 1nicroscope. They are then found to be composed of a russet-yellow, semitranslucent substance resembling resin. The thinner sections presented by the 1nore slender 

threads approach an orange-yellow. It is to be noted also that n1an.y of the canals were, 

for apparently short distances, not. completely filled by the substance, which seems to have 

been deposited on the walls so as to form a hollow cylinder. Son1e .of the cylinders were 

crushed or caved in .on one side. The attempt to diseern the configuration of the contact 

eells forming the walls of the vessel has not yet been wholly successful, though some of the 

rods have the aspect of having been bounded by longitu~inally short, s.mall cells, roughly 

quadrilateral in outline. The evidence, so far as it goes, points, therefore, to the typical canal 

structure for the container of the resin-like secretion. 

As previously noted, the canals varied considerably in diameter, some of the plants having 

comparatively large rods like those shown in figure 2, Plate XIII, and figure 3, Plate XIV, 

while in others, such as are seen in figure 1; Plate XII( the rods are relatively slender. · S01ne 

· difference in size is to be observed even in the fibrils lying in a single petiole. In this connec-

. tion it may be remarked that similar differences may be noted in 'the Myelopteris petioles· 

described by Renault and Zeiller, previously mentioned. ~ 

The examination of the Montana material leaves scarcely room for doubt that it is of the 

same general nature as the secretions filling the canals in the carbonized woods or freed as 

needle-like fragments in the vegetable debris or carbonaceous muds of the Illinois coal field. 

It will have been noted that in both regions the fillings or rods ·were evidently approxin1ately 

cylindrical in form and of nearly uniform diameter throughout great lengths; that m0st of then1 

were hard enough successfully to resist the pressure of overlying vegetable debris and 1nuds, · 

not only during the peat-forming process, but also during later periods; that they appear to 

have been largely if not completely resistant to the biochemical processes which accon1plished 

the partial decomposition and transf,ormation of the vegetal debris into peat; and that they 

have survived the subsequent dynamic and chemieal agencies which transforn1ed the original 

peaty substance into a cubical laminated coal of low bituminous rank. The conditions of their 

. release from the freshly rotting stems and petioles in the water of the peat-fonning swamps 

and the mode of their deposition in 'the peat absolutely preclude all hypotheses explaining their 

origin as infiltrations of vessels or canals subsequent to the burial of the stems in the peat. 

The isolated rods ignite readily and burn freely with a bright-yellow flame and a 1noclerate 

amount of smoke in the open air, leaving a small amount of dark-gray residue. Small quantities of the threads, after isolation and sueh imperfect cleaning as could be given by moderate 

rubbing between the fingers, were, through the courtesy of :Mr. J. D. Davis, of the Bureau 

.of Mines, subjected by him to ultimate analysis, with the following result: 

Analysis of resinous vessel casts frorn Montana.' 

0 .................. ; ...... : .............................. :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72. 69 

H ............... .' ................................... · .................................... 8.85 

0 .... -- .. -- .... -- ..... -.. -.... --.-.--.----.---.-.--.--.----.-.-.---.-.-.---- ... -.... -... 13. 61 

Ash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 85 

Ash-free: --

0 ........................ : · ........... -............ -.................................. 76.40 

H ................................................................................... 9. 30 

0 ..................... -..................... -....................................... 14. 30 

It· is probable that the ash of the sample is slightly high on account of the method of 

cleaning, which ·possibly also affected the other percentages to a slight extent, though presumably in no important way. Mr. Davis states that very little of th~ s:ubstance has been dissolved by acetone during about five months. The analysis of the Montana resinoid secretions 

may profitably be compared with some of the analyses given on page 68. It is particularly 

comparable to the analysis of the lu~p resins from the Upper Cretaceous coals in northern 

New Mexico, described by Loew 1 as wheelerite. 

1 Loew, Oscar, Am. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 7, p. 571, 1874. Specimens probably from the Cretaceous of northwestern New Mexico. 
Jt:ESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS OF HIGH RANK. 81 

Analysis of wheeleritef1'01n New Afex'ico. 

c ....................................................................... · ......... · ......... 73.07 

H ...................... · ............. · ......................... :.......................... 7. 95 

0 ....................................................................................... 18.98. 

The highly "bituminous'.'· character of the Montana Paleozoic material is conspicuously 

shown by :its high "available" hydrogen (I-I-~=7.5 per cent) and its high hydrogen-oxygen 

rn.t.io of 0.65, which, in a conl of the ordinary humic· type, should place it within the coking 

elu,ss. 1 Obviously the effect of the .presence of great numbers of these rods in a coal1nust be to 

"bituminize" it; to provide a high percentage of volatile matter; to impart a high calorific 

value to it; and, similarly, through the presence of so 1nuch hydrogen probably, to 1nake the 

voln,tile highly iliuminant. The rods are excellent Cflillnel-forming ingredient nlatter. 

In v-iew of (1.) the mode of occUI·~·ence of the secretions inclosed in the canals of the petioles 

u..11d ca.l'bon:ized woods, as well as free in both the :Montana and the eastern interior coal measures, 

(2) their resistance to the agencies of decay, (3) their aspect and state of preservation, (4) the 

nt:icroscopic charn,cters of the substance composing the casts and its optical similarity to resin, 

(Q) the close agreement, according to the chemical annJysis, with the resins, and (6) the ascertl1ined presence of lmnp resin in the C11rqoniferous coals of the upper :Mississippi Valley, I have 

h11cllittle hesitation in regarding all these substancBs as resins, though not necessarily as identical 

resins.· Not only is the Montana substance itself resin-like, but its mode of occurrence is a 

conunon n1ode of resin secretion in the plants of to-day. That it may be a gum seemed inlprobable, lm·gely on nccount of its resistance to the 11gencies of alteration. 

Feeling, however, that the Montana material, which is somewhat tougher and· more elastic 

thtttl the secretions found in the eastern co11ls (though it 1nay not always have been so), nlight 

represent 1111 unusual n1ode of occlil·rence of a resm-like wax rather than a typical resin, I subnlittecl. s11mples of the casts to Dr. C. L. Alsberg, then of the Bureau of Plant Industry in the 

Departn1ent of Agriculture, whose broad interest in problems of this kind i:tncl whose friendly 

cot~ .rtesy pr01nptecl him to investigate the substance of the rods as thoroughly as the circumstl1ncos would permit. Dr. Alsberg's prelin1inary conclusion is that the substance fron1 Montana 

is pro bn,bly resinous. l-Ie says: 

The fibrils were careflllly separated from the matrix and freed from the latter as much as possible by rubbing 

between the fingers and by brushing with a camel's-hair brush. They were apparently insoluble in cold and hot 

water, in cold and hot alcohol, in chloroform, toluene, benzol, and boiling concentrated hydrochloric acid. Hot 

concentrated sulphuric ·acid caused them to disintegrate into many smaller fibrils without much charring. Hot 

10 per cent potassium hydroxide caused the fibrils to swell somewhat, to soften, and, to a slight extent, to dissolve. 

BoiLing with concentrated nitric acid caused rapid solution of the black outer layer, with evolution of gas, leaving 

a reddish, transparent, soft core. 'Vhen cold this core became lmrd and flexible again. After the black coating had 

been dissolved by the nitric acid, the core apparently resisted further attack by the acid. 

Thereupon 0.5537 gram was boiled wi~h 95 per cent alcohol under a reflex condenser for several days. The material 

extracted weighed less than a milligram. 'J:he extraction was 1·epeated with chloroform, which extr~cted but 2 milligrams. Then toluene was tried, yielding 1.2 centigrams of extracted material. 

Since so little of the material was soluble in these organic solvents it was treated with concentrated hot nitric 

nc.icl till the black outer layer was removed. It was then washed with water till all the acid was removed and dried. 

It w~ts next extracted with ether under the reflex condenser. -A small amount passed into solutio~. The extraction 

was repeated until no more was dissolved. It was then extracted in the same manner with chloroform; but only traces 

of mttterial were dissolved in the course of several days. Thereupon the material was extracted with alcohol, which 

dissolved appreciable quantities. In the course of several weeks the boiling alcohol extracted about one-third of the 

matel'.i.al. After the n.lcohol extracted nothing more, the extraction was continued with toluene, which extracted a 

small n.mount. The residue which remained was partially soluble in a concentrated solution of chlorohydrate. 

The different fractions into which the material was separated by these solvents are being investigated chemically. 

It :is hoped tlutt fut·ther data may in the future be published. At present from the data at hand it is possible to say 

tlutt the inclicatit~ns n.re that the material is of a re~inous nature. The solubilities point in this direction. Very few 

other substances have such solubilities. The solubility in chlorohydrate is particularly significant. 

1 Bure~u of Mines Bull. 29, p. 52, 1911. 
82 CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, '1913. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

From the criteria reviewed jt appears that at least a· large part of the petioles and trunks 

of the Carboniferous coal.!.forming types of vegetation were provided, as described by several 

paleobotanists from petrified specimens ... with numerous secretory canals and cells, in many 

of which residues, generally interpreted as gums but often suggesting resins and waxes, n1ay 

still be seen. In the preceding pages evidence has been presented showing not only the presence 

of lu1np or exudate resins in Paleozoic coals of a somewhat low bituminous rank, but also the 

occurrence in these coals of great quantities of wood and petioles traversed. by canals .largely 

if not completely filled with secretions, whose mode of occurrence, optical characters, chemical 

cmnposition, and resistance to decay under the conditions of coal formation seem to combine in 

pro~f of their resinous nature. These cana~ secretions were ·not only largely resistant to the 

biochemical processes of peat formation but they have witlfstood (though probably not without 

some chemical change) the ordinary dynamo-chemical processes of peat transformation, probably except contact metamorphism, until the coals attained at least a low bituminous rank. 

Their abundance in Paleozoic coals of this or lower ranks may readily be confirmed on close 

examjna tion. 

Tliese resinous fillings have, as a result of tne partial dehydration, the progressive chemical 

waste or reduction, and the pressure collapse pf the environing undecayed pfant tissues, been, 

in effect, concentrated in the coals, so that their proportionate volume is much increased even 

in the undestroyed wood. A great concentration results from the more advanced decay of the 

other plant tissues, so that the resinous rods or bodies are either separated only by extremely 

thin carbon residues representing the remaining portions of the plant, or they are completely 

freed and isolated and so permitted to lodge and accumulate, frequently in contact, in relatively 

large quantities. Such isolated resin fragments form a permanent and consider~ble ingredient 

of the coals of the cannel type, in• some localities contributing largely to their physical and 

chemical qualities; itnd they are particularly characteristic of the canneloid fuels of the Cretaceous and Tertiary coal fields. ·· 

The amount of the wood and petioles probably containing resin found in the Paleozoic coal 

measures, both at the Montana locality and in the upper Mississippi Valley, justifies the conclusion that ~he quantity of resin contributed by the coal-forming plants and preserved either 

in place in the wood or as. accumulations (concentrates) in various layers of the coal mny, on 

the whole, have been as great in the Paleozoic e:ca as in later· epochs. Though the Paleozoic 

·resins were probably secreted in lump or exudate form far less than the resins of the plants, 

especially the conifers, of the later formations, they were, I am inclined to believe, as important 

as contributions to the coal. Furthermore, it will be remembered that the aspect of the spore 

and pollen exines found in the coal, the characteristic features of the chemical analyses of the 

coal, and the fact that the exines have physically so far survived the decomposing agencies 

appear amply to sustain the belief that in both the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic plants the exines 

were, like their modern representatives, provided with protective wax, resin, and gu1n secretions. 

The amount. of resinous and waxy material contributed by the highly varied and incredibly 

nun1erous spores in the Carboniferous coals w~s in itself undoubtedly ·htrge; and where, as in 

the cannel coals, St!.Ch spores compose a large part of the fuel body, the resinous 1naterial, perhaps 

as much as the waxes, has produced the peculiar commercial and cheinical qualities which 

. characterize the coals of tll.e cannel type. In this connection it n1ay be remarked that some of 

the pinnules ·of cycadofilic types-such, for example, as Neuropteris .flexuosa of the upper Pottsville or Neuropteris gigantea of the middle Pottsville-wer~J probably provided with waxy coverings analogous to those borne by many leaves among living plants. 

It is probable that in th-s Paleozoic as well as in the Cenozoic era many an1ong t~e coalforming species were not resin-producing, for many of the associated wood and petiole fragments 

found in the coal show no 1negascopic indications of such secretions. In the J\1ontana m.aterial 

the resinous threads seem ·to be confined to petioles or slender steins, whieh, from the differences 

in the sizes of the canals, were presumably of more than one genus and species. At the Montana 
RESINS IN PALEOZOIC PLANTS AND IN COALS 01!' HIGH RANK. 83 

locality the resin.,.bearing plants, whether or not of several kinds, were ve1y abundant, probu.bly forming th3 larger part of the arborescent material contributed to the coaly shales at 

certain levels. There is reason t'o believe that in the Paleozoic, ~sin the later epochs, the resins 

produced by different plants varied in composition and qualities. 

The evidence offered by the An1erican rnaterial makes it seem not improbable that the 

dark-brown residues :fmmd in the cnnaJs of the silicified rnaterinl from the French Permian nlso 

.is resinous, as was suggested by Renn.ult and Zeiller. The unquestionable presence of lump 

resin in the Paleozoic coals of the upper :Mississippi Valley argue's strongly also· for the resinous 

nn.tm·e of the da.rk contents of the· secretory cells and canals of some of the other plants found 

petrified in the Carbpniferous of Europe. 1 

The n.nalogies to be drawn fron1 the deforrnation, discoloration, alteration, and reduction 

(cu.rbonization, involving loss of volatile) of the n1egascopic resin lumps as the coals of the Cretaceous and Tertiary in Colorado and Washington were brought from the lower-bituminous to the 

higher-bituminous ranks appear to offer a reasonable explanation for the failure hitherto to 

observe lun1p resin in the. higher-rank bituminous coals of the Appalachian trough and for the 

probable absence of canal resin casts in the semibituminou~ coals of the same province. The 

question n.s to the extent of their survival (without doubt they were once preserit) in the areas 

of high-rank con.l rernains to be deternuned by observation, .though it is probable that they are 

present in some of the lower-rank coals having a fL'\:ed carbon ("pure coal"· basis) of less than 

58 or 55 per. cent in the western portion of the great Allegheny coal field. 

A question which appears to deserve careful consideration is, What relation, if any, may the 

alteration or transformation (natural distillation) of these high-hydrogen and high-volatile 

fusible elmnents of the coals which appears to take place in a ·critical period (limited in round 

terms by the passage frorn 58 to 65 per cent of fL~ed carbon in "pure coal"), as the fuels are 

being brought by the dynamo-chen~cal agencies to the state of fitness, other things being equal, 

for the production of high-grade coke by the ordinary process, bear to the development of the 

coking quality itself in the coals~ 

' Tho suporflclaluspect of tho Montana petioles, tho characters of their finely striated cuticles, and their modo of branching strongly suggest tho 

pctlolos or Alethopteris and Nonropteris, to which I belio,~o them probably to have belonged. The slightly irregular. but generally parallel longitudinal lineation or tho carbonized residues wus presumably produced by hypodermal strands of thick-walled and slightly more resistant tissue, 

distributed mainly in a subperipherol zone. ~l'ho secretory canals were most probably associated with such hypodermal strands, very much or 

· perhaps identically as in tho petrified stems described by Renault (Acad. sci. Paris Mem. sav. etmng., vol. 22, No. 10, p. 17, Pl. V, fig. 40, 1875) and 

Zoillor (Bassin houiller ot perm ion d' Autun ct d'Epiuac, vol. 1, Flore fossilc, pt. 1, Pl. XXVII, fig. 2, 1890) as Myelopteris and Myeloxylon. 

-t-· 

PLATE IX. 

85 
PLATE IX. 

FRAGMENTS OF BITUMINOUS COAL SHOWING CARBONIZED WOOD, ETC. 

FIGURE 1. Portion (natural size) of a large fragment of wood from the midst of the coal mined at Gerlaw, .Ill. The 

wood, which is flattened comparatively tlun, is tre:'tversed, parallel to the gra~, by very slender needle-like casts, 

the remains of hard secretions, regarded as resinous, occupying the longitudinal camils. On the right are fragments. 

of bark, cuticles, and small miscellaneous vegetal debris, all carbonized: A portion of the same specimen is shown 

four times enlarged in Plat'e XI, figure 4. · 

FIGURE 2. Bedding-plane surface (natural size) of a block of coal from a mine in '"coal No.2," near Exeter, Ill. The 

surface is strewn with small pieces of wood now flattened and converted to mineral charcoal ("mother of coal"). 

Most of the pieces are traversed lengthwise of the grain by needle-like resinous canal casts, like those shown in 

figure 1, but much more slender. A part of this specimen is shown four times enlarged in Plate X. 

FIGURE 3. Fragment (natural size) from a thin parting in the coal (No.2) at Colchester, Ill., showing the very slender 

needle-like resin fillings of the canals, Ieleased by the decay of the surrounding tissues of the WOOd and now' drifted 

in confusion. On the same specimen, as shown in bedding-plane view four times enlarged in Plate XII, are many 

megaspores and several envelopes of seeds all representing vegetal tissues most resistant to decay. Small particles 

of cuticle are also present. · 

86 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85 PLATE IX 

2 

3 

FRAGMENTS OF BITUMINOUS COAL SHOWING CARBONIZED WOOD, ETC. 
' 

PLATE X. 

-. - -- ----- -- -===~::::::-:=-==============-===--=-======================= 

87 
PLATE X. 

BEDDING PI~ANE oF coAL FRoM ExETER, ILL. 

A portion of the block shown in Plate IX, figure 2, four times the natural size. The resinous casts of the canals longitudinally traversing the fragments of carbonized wood appear like needles or fine wires lying parallel to the surface 

or protruding obliquely and at the ends of the pieces of wood. In some places the wood has rotted so that the 

casts are left entirely freed and isolated. The surrounding wood cells were so macerated and compressed that 

many of the slender round casts stand out as ridges in the coaly residue even where they are not actually expm1ed.· 

88 
U.S. OEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85 PL AT E X 

BEDDING PLANE OF COAL FROM EX ETER ILL. 
PLAT·E XI. 

89 
PLATE XI. 

RESIN LUMPS IN PALEOZOIC COALS. 

FIGURE 1. End view (five times enlarged) of a piece of coal from shaft at La Salle, Ill., showing a cross section of a 

flattened lump of rather dark amber-like resin. It is slightly pitted. 

FIGURE 2. End view (five times enlarged) of a fragment of "block" coal from a mine near Brazil, Ind., showing a 

lump of resin. The resin has been squee_zed both along the beddi~g plane and in the joints, so that its cross section 

exhibits a zigzag or "step" form. The light-colored spots above and below are mere reflections from fracture surfaces of the dense laminated coal, the photograph not being retouch'ed. Fragments of the)ump here shown have 

been subjected to combustion and chemical tests. · 

FIGURE 3. Another lump (five times enlarged) found on another side of the block of coal sh'own in figure 2. 'l'he 

lump is somewhat squeezed but retains its typical" rosin "-like translucent character. The outline of the section 

is crescentic, convex downward; the apparent extensions above and below are reflections from cleavage planes 

in the coal. The photograph is not retouched. The same specimen of coal exhibits a third resin lump. 

FIGURE 4. Portion (four times enlarged) of the fragment from Gerlaw, Ill., shown in Plate IX, figure 1, showing the 

needle-like casts or resinous fillings of the· canals in the wood, the grain of which runs vertically in the picture. 

The casts are in some places fully exposed, in others are protruding and broken off, and in still others appear only 

as ridges in the thin layer of mineral charcoal to which the wood .is reduced. 

90 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85 PLATE XI 

RESIN LUMPS IN PALEOZOIC COALS. 
PLATE XII. 

91 
PLATE XII. 

FRAGMENT FROM THIN PARTI~G IN coAL FROM CoLCHESTER, ILL. 

Portion1 (four times enlarged) of the very thin parting shown in bedding-plane view in Plate IX, figure 3. Shows 

the round, slender, needle-like resinous casts from the canals of various woods. The casts, freed by the decay 

of the other tissues of the wood, have accumulated in great numbers, effecting a concentration of the resin substance. Fragments of cuticle, spore exines, and seed coats are also present. 

92 
• 

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85 PLATE XI I 

FRAGMENT FROM THIN PARTING IN COAL FROM COLCHESTER, ILL. 
·-·-

PLATE XIII. 

93 
PLATE XIII. 

RESINOUS CASTS IN STEMS OR PETIOLES. 

[From Big Spring Creek, 20 miles southeast of Lewiston, Mont. Quadrant formation; Pottsville age.] 

FIGURE 1. Fragment of coaly shale crossed by the thin carbonized residue of a petiole, a portion of which (on the left) 

is held suspended by the very slenqer, threadlike resinous casts, which protrude at the ends like bristles or 

fibrils. The same specimen is shown twice enlarged in Plate XIV; figure 1. 

FIGURE 2. Fragment of dark shaly coal or coaly shale, in which m~ny of the petioles (or stems?) are matted in various 

directions. The resinous casts of the canals, some of which are very large, make ridges in the very thin carbonized residues of. the petioles, even where they are still enveloped by the coalified flattened remains of the 

surrounding tiesue of the wood or bark. At ~everal points casts isolated by the decay of the wood are seen. 

A portion of this specimen is shown twice enlarged in Plate XIV, figure 3. · · · 

FIGURE 3. Fragment of coaly shale from the edges of which protrude the parallel threadlike resinous vessel casts 

· which have been pulled out of the carbonaceous residues in the adjoining fragments. The bands of casts lie in 

many directions and at many levels, according to the position of the containing carbonized wood. 

94 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85 PLATE XII I 

1 

2 

3 

RESINOUS CASTS IN STEMS OR PETIOLES. 
PLATE XIV.· 

95 
PLATE XIV. 

THREADLI]\:E RESINOUS CASTS IN CARBONIZED WOODS. 

[From Big Spring Creek, 20 miles southeast of Lewiston, Mont. Quadrant formation; Pottsville age.] 

FIGURE l. Specimen shown in Plate XIII, figure 1 (enlarged two diameters), showing the cubical coal made from 

the remaining tissues of the petiole. .The residue, which is less than 0.3 millimeter in diameter, is scarcely 

thicker than the resinous fibrils themselves. The cubically jointed coal has been lifted from the matrix and 

extends, sustained by the casts, on the left. Other stem fragments with casts lie in the same piece of coaly shale. 

FIGURE. 2. Fragment (twice natural size) in which the resinous casts, much greater in diameter, lie mostly in their 

original attitudes, the coal and mud having been partly remo~ed. 

FIGURE 3. Part of the specimen shown in Plate XIII, figure 2 (twice natural size), showing the parallelism and aspect 

of the resin canal casts, which in some of the petiolar fragments are very large. Regarding the relative diameter 

of the canals, compare this figure with a corresponding enlargement given as figure 1 above. 

FIGURE 4. Piece of the coaly shale transversely crossed by a petiole or small stem which before burial in the carbonaceous mud had so far rotted that the resinous cast;"! of the canals were left free and unsupported by intervening 

woody tissues. They lie longitudinally extended but lax and irregularly disposed within the thin outer sheath 

·of the petiole. Many cast fragments wholly isolated by the decay of their enveloping stems are scattered in the 

richly carbonaceous mud. 

96 

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U. S. GEOLOG ICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 85 PLATE X IV 

1 

2 

3 4 

THREADLIKE RESINOUS CASTS IN CARBONIZED WOODS.