INVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 663 



forms to be very abundant in them, which he describes under the 

 generic names of Holocladina and Cysteodictyina respectively. 



With regard to Holocladina (pushdifera) it is evident from the 

 form of the test that the living animal possessed an amceboid form ; 

 but whether both were developed successively (that is, one part after 

 another like the crust on a stream of lava), or the living animal was 

 fully developed before the test was secreted, there is no evidence now 

 to show, beyond the presumption that the former was most likely the 

 case. The absence of all foreign material in the interior, together 

 with its form, distinctly separates it from the genera Carpenteria 

 and Polytrema, while it chiefly differs from Aphrosina * in not being 

 multilocular. No oral apertures were satisfactorily seen ; but it may 

 fairly be inferred that each of the conical projections on the terminal 

 branchlets bears one, through which a pseudopodium issues during 

 the living state, in search of that subtile kind of nourishment which 

 the present emptiness of the test indicates to have been the nature of 

 the aliment. 



Amongst the other forms described is CeratesUna, n. gen. (2 n. sp.), 

 in which the test is horny, of a dark amber colour, and translucent. 

 The composition of the test here brings us one degree nearer than 

 that of the Testamcebiformia to the absolutely naked Foraminifer, to 

 whose conjectured existence the author before alluded; but lest it 

 might be thought that it is merely the chitine without the calcareous 

 material which characterizes this genus, it should be mentioned that 

 if a specimen of Ceratestina and an ordinary calcareous test of a 

 Foraminifer together be exposed to the influence of an acid solution 

 (e. g. dilute nitric acid), the latter will be dissolved and leave 

 scarcely any residue, while the former remains unaffected, proving 

 that the horny substance of the Ceratestina is something more than 

 the chitine which may support the calcareous material ; indeed the 

 best way of extracting a Ceratestina is to put the calcareous substance 

 containing the specimen into a strong solution of nitric acid, which, 

 all know, is instant destruction to a calcareous test. In some cases 

 the test is composed in one part of the ordinary calcareous material, 

 and in the other of the horny substance only, which condition is so 

 usually seen in one species tliat it would appear to be rather natural 

 than accidental. The author alludes to a species which he figured and 

 described, conjecturally, as tlic "embryonic form" of Carpenteria mon- 

 ticnlaris,-\ but which now, finding it to be a distinct species, he would 

 name Carpenteria microscopica. The chambers of Carpenteria utricu- 

 laris and also the cells of Polytrema mimtceum are often lined by a 

 stifi' horny layer of considerable thickness ; but under what circum- 

 stances, he is ignorant, as it does not occur always : this, however, is 

 secondary and must not be confounded with Ceraiestina, in wliich tho 

 liorny structure is primary and i)ormanent. 



The author also describes as new species Polytrema n/lindriritm 

 and P. meKentcricnm ; and as new species or varieties, Calcariiia adrar 

 var. hixj^ida and Alreolina sinitosa. 



* Sco this Jouriinl, ii. (IS70) p. r.OO. 



t 'Aim. nnd Mng. Nat. HJHt.,' .\ix. (1S77) p. 'Ji:{. 



