[bell] new genus of CHARACEAE AND NEW MEROSTOMATA 161 



There is seemingly also a minute open pore and narrow slits between 

 the cells at the apical end since a specimen treated with dilute 

 hydrochloric acid admits the acid to the interior with the consequent 

 solution of the infiltrated calcite and ebullitions of gas through the 

 neck. The neck, however, is wholly or partly broken off in the major- 

 ity of specimens. Lengths vary from 0.5 to 0.6 mm., diameters from 

 0.45 to 0.55 mm. 



The presence of an undoubted representative of the Characeae in 

 the Carboniferous is of great interest in connection with the occurrence 

 of minute spirally marked globular organisms, about 1 mm. in diameter, 

 in association with marine fossils in Middle Devonian limestone of 

 Ohio. These were first reported by Meek'^ in 1873 from the falls 

 of the Ohio who assigned them with some doubt to the freshwater 

 genus Chara and was of the opinion that they drifted out to sea. 

 Williamson^ in 1880 examined similar forms from Kelly's island, Ohio, 

 under the impression that they might be of vegetable origin, but came 

 to the decision that they were foraminiferal and included them in his 

 genus Calcisphaera which had been created to hold somewhat similar 

 globular forms from the Carboniferous of Wales. He named the Ohio 

 forms Calcisphaera rohusta. Dawson^ a few years later, in 1883, pointed 

 out important characters in which the American species from Kelly's 

 island differed from Williamson's description of them. Although 

 Dawson remarks on the superficial resemblance to Chara fruits he 

 agrees with Williamson in referring them to the foraminiferae, but he 

 assigns them to the genus Saccamina as Saccamina eriana. Knowlton* 

 in 1889 redescribed the species from the Falls of Ohio and presented 

 at length the various conflicting views held regarding its affinities. 

 The major difficulties against the Characeous affinity are stated to 

 be the presence of nine or ten spiral markings instead of the five in 

 recent and known fossil Chara, the twist of the spirals in a right handed 

 instead of a left handed direction, and finally the abundant uniform 

 distribution of the fossil in a marine formation. In conclusion Knowl- 

 ton distinguishes the Falls of Ohio form with the name Calcisphaera 

 lemoni. In his review Knowlton failed to recognize the description 

 of the Falls of Ohio species presented by Ulrich'^ three years earlier in 

 1886. The latter makes no mention of the Chara-like appearance of 



iMeek, F. B., Geol. Surv., Ohio, Paleontology, Vol. I, 1873, p. 219. 



^Williamson, W. C, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., Vol. 171, pt. 2, pp. 520-525. 



^Dawson, J. W., Can. Nat., 2nd sen, Vol. X, 1883, pp. 5-8. Figure 3. 



^Knowlton, F. H. Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, Vol. 37, 1889, pp. 202-209, 

 Figures 1-3. 



^Ulrich, E. O., Contributions to American Palaeontology, Vol. I, No. 1, 

 Cincinnati, Ohio, 1886. 



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