Carboniferous

a term applied to the extensive and thick series of strata with which seams of paleozoic coal are. more or le immediately a ociated. It is applied as well to that great sysfem of formations which yield our main supply of coal, or to some divisions of that system, such as the Carboniferous limestone and the Carp on i fer ous slates. It is also applied to the fo ils found in any stratum pelonging to the system.