18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



When newly dug out of the sand, they often work rapidly down 

 into it, apparently by the ventral spines, without calling into aid 

 the formation of the lateral ridges of spines. 



THE SOCIETY'S ROOMS, 207 BATH STEEET, 

 November 30th, 1880. 

 Mr. John A. Harvie-Brown, F.Z.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 Professor John Cleland, M.D., F.R.S., and Mr. Andrew Bain, 

 were elected ordinary members. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



Mr. James Allan showed a fine collection of Ferns and other plants 

 which he had received from Kentucky, U.S., and on which he made 

 a few remarks. 



Mr. John Young, F.G.S., exhibited a curious comb-like organism 

 from the black-band ironstone shales of the Airdrie coalfield, and 

 stated that he knew of some three or four specimens obtained from 

 the same beds, but hitherto it was not known to what class of ani- 

 mals they belonged. Recently he had discovered that similar 

 organisms had been figured and described by Professor Fritsch, of 

 Prague, in his monograph of the fauna of the gas-coal and limestone 

 of the Permian formation of Bohemia, Professor Fritsch calls them 

 Kammplatten — i.e., comb-plates — and refers them to the genus 

 Ophiderpeton of Huxley, a serpent-like amphibian, first found in 

 the Kilkenny coalfield in Ireland, and afterwards in the coal-measures 

 of the north of England, but which hitherto had not been identified 

 from Scotland. These Kammplatten are stated to have been placed 

 upon the body of the animal, near the cloaca, in imbricated series. 

 They are about three-fourths of an inch in length, and rather less 

 than quarter of an inch in breadth. The serrated, comb-like part of 

 the plate has a curved handle-like process giving it a club-like form. 

 Should the present identification of these plates with Ophiderpeton 

 be confirmed by the discovery of other parts of the skeleton, this 

 will be a new addition to the list of amphibian forms from the Lanark- 

 shire coalfield, in Avhich five other genera have already been noted. 



Note. — Since the above remarks were communicated to the Society, 

 Dr. Traquair and Mr. Thomas Stock, of the Museum of Science and 

 Art, Edinburgh, have each recorded the occurrence of Kamplatten 

 in the eastern coalfield of Scotland. 



