MR. J. W. KIEKBT ON PERMIAN FISH AND PLANTS. 73 



2H- inches long, or nearly one-third of the length of the body. 

 The anterior portion of the body is of a pretty uniform width, 

 but from the ventral fins to the caudal it gradually attenuates to 

 f inch. The tail is strongly heterocercal. 



The fins are large. The dorsal is 5 inches from the snout, and, 

 though placed between the anal and ventrals, is partly over the 

 latter ; the ventrals are about 4-|- inches from the snout ; the anal 

 is 7 inches from the snout. The rays of the ventral fins are 

 stout, and consist of twenty-three or twenty-four rays, which 

 bifurcate twice in the terminal third of their length ; their artic- 

 ulations, judging from the scales covering them, are short com- 

 pared with their width, and irregular, except in the three basal 

 joints, which are uniform in all the rays. The pectoral fins 

 appear to have been similar in size to the ventrals, though num- 

 bering probably a few more rays. The anal is scarcely larger 

 than the ventrals ; it has thirty or thirty-one rays, not quite so 

 stout as those of the ventrals, and with articulations proportion- 

 ally longer. The dorsal, from what remains I have seen of it, 

 seems to have been a little longer than the anal, and in both it 

 and the latter the rays branch similarly to those of the ventrals. 

 The caudal is large and deeply forked, each lobe being of nearly 

 equal length ; but, as the tail-margin slopes rapidly inwards 

 ventrally, the rays of the ventral lobe are very much longer than 

 those of the dorsal lobe, and they are also much stronger. The 

 rays of the caudal fin are numerous, and similar in character to 

 those of the others. Some of the basal ray-scales have the surface 

 ornamentally furrowed or wrinkled, like the body-scales ; in the 

 other fins I have always observed that the ray-scales are smooth. 

 The dorsal and ventral margins of this fin are fringed with ful- 

 cral scales, those of the dorsal lobe being longer than those of the 

 ventral. Similar though smaller fulcrals protect the anterior 

 margins of the dorsal, anal, ventrals, and pectorals. 



The head is obtuse, and has the orbit placed far forwards ; the 

 jaws are powerful, and the gape is very large, being more than 

 one-fifth of the length of the body ; both upper and lower jaws 

 are furnished with numerous smooth, conical, pointed teeth, about 

 one-fifteenth of an inch in length ; these teeth are somewhat 



