244 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



PROTOZOA OF THE CINCINNA 11 (iROUP. 



By Joseph 1"'. Jamk.s, Professor of Botany and Gcologx in 

 . ifiami Unii 'ersity. 



(Read September 6, i886.) 



The tern) Protozoa is applied to those members of the animal 

 kingdom which are "generally of minute size, composed of a 

 nearly structureless jelly-like substance (termed ' sarcode ') show- 

 ing no composition out of definite jmrts or segments, having no 

 definite body-cavity, presenting no traces of a nervous system, and 

 having either no differentiated alimentary apparatus or but a very 

 rudimentary one."* 



On account of their jelly-like nature they are difficult of preser- 

 vation in a fossil state, and, when found, present a structure which 

 can only be examined by means of microsco])ic sections. Only 

 two orders have as yet been found fossil in this vicinity, and these 

 only in limited numbers. The first contains one genus and one 

 species, and vvas formerly placed with the Polypi. The second 

 includes eight genera and eighteen species. The following is the 

 first attempt which has been made to collect the descriptions of 

 genera and species and arrange them in any order : 



Sub-kingdom PROTOZOA. 

 Order. Foraminifkr.a. 



Minute, structureless, gelatinous animals, with the body pro- 

 tected by a shell generally composed of carbonate of lime. Pseudo- 

 podia long, filamentous, and interlacing. 



Living Foraminifera are microscopic, and distributed in 

 immense beds at the bottom of the ocean. As fossils they are 

 found through all the formations from the Silurian to the Quater- 

 nary. They go largely toward making up the chalk formation, 

 and in the Eocene Tertiary formed beds known as the Numnui- 

 litic limestone, which stretch from Western Europe to the frontiers 

 of China (Nicholson). Only one genus seems yet to have been 

 found in the Cincinnati group, although both Reccptaciilitis and 

 Stromatopora, have been referred here. The genus now placed 

 in this order is Beatkicea, and it has been assigned various posi- 



*Nicholson Manual ot Zoology, p. 44. 



