ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 261 



other authors considered the specimens to be rugose corals. In 18G5 

 Hyatt identified Beatricea as a cephalopod, but in 1885 he recanted and 

 transferred the organism to the Foraminifera. Hyatt recorded specimens 

 reaching a length of 20 feet and a diameter of 8*5 inches, and these 

 measurements alone are sufficient to show that Hyatt's decision cannot 

 be accepted. The organism has since been classed by Nicholson (in 

 1886), and by Parks, in the order Stromatoporidas of the Hydrozoa, 

 nnder the family Labechiida?. (See Sherborn's observations on the 

 organism in his Index of the Foraminifera, Pt. I., 1893, p. 17.) 



H.-A. & E. 



Fossil Foraminifera of the Canal Zone, Panama. — Bulletin No. 

 11;] of the Smithsonian Institution (l'J18-19) is devoted to "Contribu- 

 tions to the Geology and Paleontology of the Canal Zone, Panama, and 

 Geologically Related Areas in Central America and the West Indies." Of 

 this exhaiistive " variorum " volume, pp. 45-87 (and plates 19-33) are 

 devoted by Dr. J. A. Cushman to a study of the smaller, and pp. 89- 

 102 (and plates 31-45) to the larger Foraminifera of the Panama Canal 

 Zone. The material was collected by Messrs. I). F. Macdonald and 

 T. Wayland Vaughan (the former being sometime Geologist to the 

 Canal Commission), who contribute to the Bulletin respectively papers 

 on " The Sedimentary Formations of the Panama Canal Zone, with 

 Special Reference to the Stratigraphical Relations of the Fossiliferous 

 Beds " (pp. 525-15 and 2 plates), and on "The Biological Character and 

 Geologic Correlation of the Sedimentary Formations of Panama in 

 their Relation to the Geologic History of Central America and the 

 West Indies" (pp. 547-G12). The papers must be considered together, 

 as the stratigraphy of the beds is worked out principally by reference to 

 the contained Foraminifera, especially with regard to the Orbitoids and 

 Xummulites. The formations are Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, and 

 Pliocene, the Pleistocene being represented by swamp deposits, river 

 gravels, old sea beaches, and recent deposits, and the two latter papers 

 under consideration are illustrated by admirable charts, maps, sections 

 and tables. 



Mr. Macdonald's paper consists of a description of the beds in strati- 

 graphical order, Mr. Vaughan dealing in more detail with their biological 

 character, giving lists of the contained fossils, prominence being given 

 to the Foraminifera as worked out by Dr. Cushman, upon which he 

 founds principally the correlation of the beds. Both papers are largely 

 based upon the two former papers by Dr. Cushman. 



The paper on the smaller Foraminifera is the outcome of pains- 

 taking systematic work, and is excellently illustrated, material from 

 seventeen stations having been examined, and seventy-two species being 

 recorded, of which fourteen are described as new to science. Though the 

 separation from their allied types is not always, in our opinion, fully 

 justified, among these may be noted an interesting ChrysaUdina pul- 

 chella, Xonionina anomalina, and Triloculina projecta, though as these 

 appear to be described upon the strength of a single specimen we should 

 prefer to regard them as abnormal varieties: 



The paper on the larger Foraminifera is largely devoted to the genus 



