Prof. Huxley on new Labyrinthodonts. 75 



May 7. — Prof. A. C. Ramsay, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1 . " Note respecting the Discovery of a new and large Labyrin- 

 thodont {Loxomma Allmani, Huxley) in the Gilmerton Iron-stone of 

 the Edinburgh Coal-field." By Prof. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., Sec.G.S. 



Looking over the vertebrate fossils from Burdie House and Gil- 

 merton in the University Museum, Edinburgh, Prof. Huxley came 

 upon some reptilian specimens — a fragment of the hinder part of the 

 upper wall of a cranium and some sternal plates of a Labyrinthodont, 

 which, from the obliquity of its orbits, he names Loxomma. The 

 skull would be about 14 inches long if perfect, and the animal about 

 6 or 7 feet. 



2. "Note on a new Labyrinthodont (Pholidogaster pisciformis, 

 Huxley) from the Edinburgh Coal-field." By Prof. T. H. Huxley, 

 F.R.S., Sec.G.S. 



The specimen on which this new form has been determined was 

 placed in the British Museum by Sir P. Egerton and Lord Ennis- 

 killen, who recognized it as Reptilian. Mr. Davis, of the British 

 Museum, drew Mr. Huxley's attention to it as being probably Arche- 

 gosaurian. It is not well preserved, but on careful study proves to 

 be an amphibian allied to Archegosaurus, differing, however, from 

 it in the form of the head, the extent to which the ossification of the 

 vertebral column has proceeded, and in the character of the dermal 

 armour. This animal was about 44 inches long. 



3. "On the Land Flora of the Devonian Period in North-eastern 

 America." By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S. 



First noticing what was formerly known of the Devonian Plant- 

 remains in the States of New York and Pennsylvania (Hall, Van- 

 uxem, and Rogers), in Gaspe (Logan), in New Brunswick and 

 Maine (Gesner, Robb, Bennett, Hartt, Matthew, and Hitchcock), 

 the author stated that, with Messrs. Hartt, Matthew, and others at 

 St. John's, he had lately examined the productive localities near 

 that city, and was now enabled to add largely to the account of the 

 Devonian plants he had already published in the ' Canadian Natu- 

 ralist,' vol. vi. 1861. He now enumerates about 70 species (32 

 genera) of plants as occurring in the Upper Devonian of Pennsyl- 

 vania, New Brunswick, Maine, New York, and Gaspe, in the 

 Middle Devonian of New York and Gaspe, and in the Lower De- 

 vonian of Gaspe. Of these 70 species, two (Psilophyton princeps 

 and Corddites angustifolius) are referred also to the Upper Silurian of 

 Gaspe ; and 10 (not including these two) reappear in the Carboni- 

 ferous strata. The Devonian Flora much resembles in general facies 

 that of the Carboniferous period. In the Lower Devonian series the 

 underclays are filled with the rhizomes of Psilophyton, in the Upper 

 Devonian with Sigillarice and Calamites (as in the Coal-measures). 

 The Devonian Flora is less perfectly preserved than that of the Coal- 

 measures, and is probably yet very imperfectly known ; it presents 

 more resemblance to the floras of the Mesozoic period and of modern 



