Floral character in mires has changed progressively through time, In the Carboniferous, pteridophytes, sphenophytes and lycophytes were dominant but by the Permian gymnosperms were an important component of mire flora, During the early Mesozoic gymnosperms remained the characteristic mire vegetation, together with pteridophytes, and conifers became dominant during the Jurassic. Cretaceous and Paleocene vegetation are similar, with taxodiaceous flora being important in mire vegetation. From the Eocene onwards, however, angiosperms were increasingly dominant in mire communities and in the Miocene herbaceous vegetation began to play a significant role. Together with these changes in floral character at least three aspects of coal character also appear to vary sequentially with lime and are distinctive in the Tertiary: (1) proportions and thickness of vitrain banding, (2) coal bed thickness and (3) proportions of carbonised material, A compilation has been made of data from the coal literature comparing older coals with those of the Tertiary, in order to give a perspective in which to examine Tertiary coals. It was found that only Tertiary coals contain significant proportions of coal devoid of vitrain bands. In addition, Tertiary coals are the thickest recorded coal beds and generally contain low percentages of carbonised material (many less than 5%) as compared to older coals. It is interesting to note that Paleocene coal beds are similar to Cretaceous coals in that they tend to be thinner and contain higher proportions of carbonised material than do younger Tertiary coals. The absence of vitrain bands in some Tertiary coal beds is thought to result from the floras dominated by angiosperms, which are relatively easily degraded as compared to gymnosperms, The thickness of Tertiary coals may be related to an increase in biomass production from the Carboniferous through to the Tertiary, as plants made less investment in producing lignin, an energy-intensive process, In addition, with less lignin in plants, easier degradation of biomass may have facilitated nutrient recycling which, in turn, led to greater biomass production. Increased biomass production may have also ＇diluted＇ the carbonised material present in some Tertiary pears, leading to lower proportions in the coal. Another possible cause of decreased carbonised components in Tertiary coal is that decreasing lignin content resulted in decreased charring during fires, as lignin is particularly prone to charring. A third possibility is that the carbonised component of peat may be concentrated during coalification so that Tertiary coals, generally of lower rank than Mesozoic or Paleozoic coals, contain a smaller fraction of carbonised plant material. It is not at present clear which of these mechanisms may have affected carbonised material in peat and coal but it is clear that lignin type and content has had an important role in determining peat and coal character since the Paleozoic.