1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 227 



tion of the contents of the sands, so laboriously studied by Soldani, 

 and rendered classic by the figures of Plancus, Gualtieri, Breyne and 

 Oinanni. Silvestri also figures a new form of Peneroplis pertusus in 

 Memorie Pont. Accadcmie Nuovi Lined, vol. xiv. ; but these one is 

 tempted to regard more as worn specimens than novelties. They 

 are however well figured on two plates, and form a useful contribu- 

 tion to the subject in any case. Carlo Fornasini is still busy, and 

 gives us a beautiful plate of Uvigcrina oononiensis in Pivista Italiana 

 ill Falaeontologia, anno iv., one specimen of which shows a double 

 mouth. He also publishes another contribution to the Tertiary 

 Foraminifera of Italy, dealing this time with the Pliocene of San 

 Pietro, in Lama, near Lecco. His third paper, now before us, 

 is " Indice de le Rotaliine fossili d'ltalia," published by the Bologna 

 Academy in its Memoires, and which is especially valuable in that 

 Fornasini gives facsimiles of d'Orbigny's original drawings of his 

 described species, which have never been published before. 



Yet another paper is one by Jan Perner of the Prague Museum 

 who describes and figures in the Bulletin international, Academie des 

 Sciences de BoMme, 1898, some very interesting Lituoloids from the 

 Tithonian of Strain berg. Five forms are described, of which three 

 are considered new, and two are insufficiently known to be speci- 

 fically determined. Mr Charles Schlumberger occupies our atten- 

 tion with two papers, one, in La Eeuillc des Jcunes Naturalistes, 

 on Involutina conica, n. sp., an interesting form from the great 

 oolite of Heronvillette near Caen. The specimens were obtained 

 by heating the rock and then plunging it into cold w T ater. His 

 second paper is on a new genus, which he calls Mcandropsina 

 Mun.-( 'halm., though we believe that this is the first appearance of 

 the name in print. The genus resembles Orbiculina, is formed 

 of three thicknesses of cells, the centre of which is composed of 

 spiral chambers, starting from an initial sphere, and becoming 

 concentric and circular: this is covered above and below by a layer 

 of vermiform and ineandriform chambers. The layer is imperforate, 

 but the last chamber has numerous openings all round the disc. It 

 is of Cretaceous age. Friedrich Dreyer contributes a magnificent 

 monograph on Prncmplis, of 119 pages and four double quarto and 

 one single quarto plates. This is a separately published work issued 

 by Engelmann of Leipzig at 12 marks, and the numerous figures 

 show plainly the immense variation among the foraminifera. 



The Periodical Cicada 



The latest entomological Bulletin (No. 14, n.s.) of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture comprises an exhaustive account by Mr C. L. 

 Marlatt of Cicada septendceim, the American Periodical Cicad. The 

 bibliography of this famous insect goes back to the year 1633, when 



