90 Geological Society. 



I hope these notes may prove interesting to those devoted 

 to this branch of study, and that all that I have stated will 

 soon be verified by other observers. 



I am, Gentlemen, 



Yours obediently, 

 Exeter, May 10, 1878. EdWARD PaRFITT. 



PEOCEEDINGS OP LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



May 9th, 1877.— Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair, 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On the Agassizian Genera Amblypterus, Palceoniscus, Oyro- 

 lepis, and Pygoptenis.^' By Ramsay H. Traquair, Esq., M.D., 

 F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 



The author's object in this paper was to discuss the characters by 

 which the above genera of fossil fishes have been supposed to be 

 distinguished in the case of specimens from the Carboniferous 

 series. In Amblyptenis he distinguished five types among the 

 species referred to that genus by Agassiz, viz. : — I. Of A. latus ; 

 II. Of A. macroptents = genus Rhahdolepis, Trosch. ; III. Of A. 

 striatus = Cosmopti/cliius, g. n. ; IV. Of A, nemopterus = genus 

 ElonicJithys, Gieb. ; V. Of A. punctntus = Oonatodus, g. n. In Pa- 

 lceoniscus he distinguished the following types : — I. Of P. Freies- 

 lebeni ; II. Of P. Duvemoyi = genus Amhlypterus, Ag. ; III. Of P. 

 striolatus = genus Elonichthys, Giob. ; of P. omatissimus = Rhadi- 

 nichthys, g. n. ; VI. Of P. glapJiyrus = Acentropliorus, g. n. ; VII. 

 Of P. catopterus = genus Dictyopyge, Egert. He further discussed 

 at great length the characters and aflinities of the genera Oyrolepis 

 and Pygopterus^ the former of which he regarded as untenable, on 

 the ground of its being founded on fragmentary remains of fishes 

 belonging to several other genera ; and the latter as divisible into 

 the following groups : — I. Type of P. Humboldtii, Permian only ; 

 II. Tj-pe of P. BucUandi = Elonichthys, Gieb. ; III. Type of P. 

 Greenocl-ii =■■ Nematopytychius, g. n. There are no Carboniferous 

 species of Pygopterus proper. 



2. "On the Circinate Vernation, Fructiflcatio]i, and Varieties of 

 Sphenopteris ajffinis, and on StaphyJopteris ? Peachii, Etheridge and 

 Balfour, a Genus of Plants new to British Rocks." By C. W. Peach, 

 Esq., A.L.S. 



The author noticed the occurrence in the Carboniferous shales 

 near West Calder (Edinburgh) of abundant remains of the fern 

 described by Lindley and Hutton as S2}henopteris affinis, dwelling 



