Br. Traquair — New Fish-Remains from near Edinburgh. 493 



observed that in few cases are they quite symmetrically rounded, 

 there being usually more or less of a peculiar obliquity of form, 

 which reminds us, to some small extent, of the rhombic contour 

 of the ordinary palceoniscid scale. On their attached surfaces these 

 scales are smooth, and perfectly destitute of the vertical keel, 

 articular spine and socket found in ordinary PalceoniscidcB and in 

 most other rhombic scaled Ganoids, The outer surface shows 

 posteriorly a free ganoid and sculptured area, occupjang about ^ 

 of the entire space, the remaining covered portion being dull and 

 marked with very delicate concentric lines of growth. The exposed 

 area is covered with fine, brilliantly ganoid ridges, raised above 

 the general surface, closely set, subparallel, and proceeding to the 

 posterior margin without convergence ; they are frequently inter- 

 calated, but more rarely appear to bifurcate. When examined by 

 a hand lens, these ridges, where the surface is abraded, appear to be 

 hollow internally with only a very thin external covering, their 

 tiTbular interiors being filled with white carbonate of lime, but I 

 have not yet had the opportunity of subjecting the structure of the 

 scales to examination by the compound microscope. 



Bemarhs. — The occurrence of a palseoniscid fish with rounded 

 imbricating scales, though new to British rocks, is not altogether 

 new to science. Already in 1875 Prof. Anton Fritsch, of Prague, 

 had discovered in the Lower Permian Gas Coal of Kounova, in 

 Bohemia, a small fish he thus briefly noticed, — 



" (Nov. gen.) Kounoviensis. — 1st eine neue Gattung von Fischen, 

 die bei dem Gesammthabitus eines Palceoniscus mit Cycloiden- 

 Schuppen versehen ist. Die Schwanzflosse ist heterocerc, die 

 Kiefern mit grossen spitzen Ziihnen versehen. Die Gesammtlange 

 betragt 10 cm. Der Hohe nach sind 12 Schuppenreihen der Liinge 

 nach etwa 50." ^ For this new and interesting genus Prof. Fritsch 

 afterwards proposed the name Sphcerolepis, ^ stating that the scales 

 are " kreisrund," but I am not aware of his having as yet published 

 any full generic or specific diagnosis of the fish. Accordingly, with 

 a view of ascertaining the generic relationship of the above described 

 Carboniferous fish to the Bohemian Sphcei-olepis, I have carefully ex- 

 amined a specimen of the latter, which the British Museum obtained 

 some years ago from Prof. Fritsch himself. Naturally, however, I 

 feel great reluctance and delicacy as to entering into any detail as to 

 Prof. Fritsch's fish, before he has himself overtaken its complete 

 description and illustration in his magnificent work on the Vertebrata 

 of the Bohemian Permian Gas Coal and Limestones, now in course 

 of publication. It will be quite sufficient to state that the symmetrical, 

 and consequently more typically " cycloidal " contour of its scales, 

 and the apparent absence of a sharply defined area with peculiar 

 tubular ridges, together with other points, seem to me to be ample 

 justification for erecting the Borough Lee fish into a separate genus. 

 For this I propose the term Cryphiolepis, on account of the decep- 



1 Sitzungsberichte der k. bblira, Gesellsch. der "Weiss, 19 March, 1875. 

 - lb. Jan. 1877, also March, 1879. 



