1893.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. Ill 



characterized by the extraordinary richness of its diatoms, si- 

 licious sponge spicules, and billions of silicious rhizopod shells, 

 Difflugia and other species. 



At this point it might be appropriate to allude to a deposit 

 situated at Montgomery, Ala. — the great artesian basin, about fifty 

 feet in diameter and at least fifteen feet in depth. During a 

 visit to Montgomery I observed that the basin was being cleaned 

 out and that laborers wearing rubber boots were bailing out the 

 ooze that had accumulated at the bottom, which ooze was at that 

 time about eighteen inches deep and of about the consistence of 

 gruel. Desiring to ascertain whether the ooze was a diatom ooze, 

 I secured a quantity of the material and sent it to Mr. C. L. 

 Peticolas, who sent me back beautiful slides of a pure gathering 

 of Epethemia gibba. He remarked that it was the prettiest gath- 

 ering he had ever seen of that species, and likewise the hardest to 

 clean. Associated with the Epethemia gibba were a few species 

 of smaller diatoms. This basin has been a feature of Montgom- 

 ery, Ala., for over fifty years, and it is a remarkable fact that the 

 basin held but one conspicuous species of diatoms through so 

 many years. 



As a last resort to defend the thesis that the Diatomaceae ought 

 to be regarded as belonging among the lower orders of animal 

 life rather than among plant life, we can bring to our aid the es- 

 tablished rules of the logician and of the mathematician ; the 

 former granting the use of the syllogism, and the latter that of the 

 " theory of probabilities," either of which I believe would force 

 the solution of the question in favor of an animal status. The 

 fact that the earliest algologists had classed certain genera of the 

 filamentous diatomaceous groups among the Confervoideee, such 

 as Melosira, Schizonema, Homeocladia, Masiogloia, etc., on ac- 

 count of their algaceous habit, does not necessarily compel those 

 to fall into line with their views who choose to regard all dia- 

 toms having a distinctive motive power and a motile protoplas- 

 mic sheath as belonging to the Protozoa. 



Besides Leidy's excellent work, " Rhizopods of North Ame- 

 rica," I have consulted the able articles of various specialists 

 in well-known encyclopaedias, and I am under especial obliga- 

 tions to the paper of the eminent diatomist, Count-Abate Fran- 

 cesco Castracane, entitled " Generalita su le Diatomee^' (1884). 



