On Ostracoda, etc., from the Devonian of Germany. 339 



cortex of Sporocarpon aculeatum (see fig. 1), from the Upper 

 Devonian of Ebersdorf. The dimensions of this example are 

 almost exactly that of the typical CalcUi^hsera spinosa Williamson, 

 being 092 mm. in diameter. In tliis specimen the central 

 sphere usually present is reduced to a mere junction of the radii. 



Eemarks on the Affinities of the Genera Treated. 



Traquairia. — This genus was referred to in the original note in 

 the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (ref. antea) as a 

 Kadiolarian rhizopod, by Carruthers. In the discussion on that 

 paper, Prof. Tliiselton Dyer thought they were not related to 

 Xanthidia, but were probably the resting stage of some animal 

 organisms. 



From the cellulose appearance of the outer covering or '' capsule 

 wall," and the frequent inclusion of smaller spore-like ])odies, it 

 seems highly probable that they must be referred to plant struc- 

 tures, and indeed there seems quite satisfactory evidence in support 

 of this, given by Williamson,* who found Traguaii^ise in a crushed 

 strobilus of Lepidodcndron from the CarlDoniferous of Yorkshire. 

 It is quite easy to conceive how such megaspores, showered in 

 myriads and drifted by the wind into tidal lagoons, might float 

 into a deep-water area, and so become included in the moderately 

 deep-water marine limestone of the Carboniferous and Devonian 

 sea-beds. 



Sporocarpon. — It is of much interest to note that the organisms 

 referred to this genus by Williamson had the assumption of their 

 plant origin well supported by the presence of little microscopic 

 bodies within the capsule. Should the specimens here figured as 

 Sporocarpon be rightly assigned to that genus, the little Calcisplidera- 

 like bodies found within one of them seem to point conclusively 

 to the relationship and even identity of those and the true Ccdci- 

 sphmrse of the Carboniferous Limestone. Both the free and included 

 forms were found in the Devonian Limestones examined during 

 the writing of this present notice. 



Calcisph.vra. — In these, mostly minute bodies, the outer capsule 

 is usually of considerable thickness, and the form regularly 

 spherical. The Carboniferous Limestone examples generally have 

 a fine spinose covering, but sometimes with stronger radii, as seen 

 in a similar form figured here in tig. 5. The figure 6, from the 

 interior of a Sporocarpon from Ebersdorf, is so like the typical 

 Ccdcisplimrse, both in shape and structure, that their relationship 

 seems apparent. If of the nature of the Coccosplieres, as Williamson 



* Phil. Trans. Boy. Soc, vol. clxxi. pt. 2, 1880, p. 532. 



