280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



which he had found the two following species, Hydreionocrinus 

 Scoticus, De Kon., and Poieriocrinus nuciformis, M'Coy; and in 

 illustration of his remarks he had prepared enlarged drawings of 

 the different parts, and full sized restorations of four of the many- 

 genera comprising this family of Echinoderms. Mr Pratt said the 

 Crinoidea first appeared in the time of the upper Cambrian rocks, 

 and they have continued up to recent times. They flourished in 

 greatest abundance during the Carboniferous period, covering 

 tracts of sea-bottom many miles in extent, and forming strata 

 hundreds of feet in thickness. The drawings of restored forms re- 

 presented Cyathocrinus, which commenced life in the upper Silurian, 

 and continued through the Carboniferous period; Woodocrimis, 

 which came into existence and perished in Carboniferous times ; 

 Apiocrimcs, which is found only in the Oolite, having begun and 

 ended in that formation ; and Pentacrinus, a Liasic form, which, 

 along with several other recently discovered genera, is still living on 

 the West Indian and Atlantic sea bottoms. Altogether, between 

 70 and 80 genera, and upwards of 300 species, are catalogued, 

 two-thirds of which are found in Palaeozoic rocks. In the Beith 

 district large tracts of strata many feet in thickness are comj)Osed 

 of little else than the remains of Crinoids, but very few heads 

 have been discovered there, only an isolated one turning up now 

 and then on the weathered surfaces. At Trearne quarry the stems 

 are large and robust, the limestone being one of the finest known 

 for building or fluxing purposes. Mr Pratt then described the 

 way in which the bodies of Crinoids are built up, and stated that 

 in the collection he exhibited there were eight different species of 

 heads, and double that number of stems, all differently sculptured 

 on the external surfaces. He had found in an old working near 

 Cupar, about 20 miles from Kirkcaldy, several of these heads and 

 the remains of an Echinoderm, Archaeocidaris Urii, a species 

 which has a wide range in the limestone strata of Scotland, having 

 been first described from the Lanarkshire coalfield. 



Mr John Young, F.G.S., and Mr James Thomson, F.G.S., made 

 some remarks on the collection, the former expressing a hope that 

 Mr Pratt, who had already done good work in illustrating this 

 group of fossils, would continue to prosecute what he had so 

 well begun. 



The Secretary exhibited a collection of plants from Disco Island, 

 forwarded by Captain H. W. Feilden, C.M.Z.S., naturalist to the 



