118 KITTON, ON NEW GENERA AND SPECIES. 
the next one by a very small space; outer margin finely 
striate, as is also the margin of the central area, which is 
elliptical ; alee not conspicuous. 
Remarks on the Pusiication of New GENERA and SPEctEsS 
from INsuFFICIENT MaTEriau. By Mr. F. Kirron. 
(Read at the Quekett Microscopical Club, February 22nd, 1867.) 
I HAVE the honour this evening of calling your attention to 
the growing desire of students of natural history, and more 
particularly of microscopical observers, for the discovery and 
description of new genera and species, in consequence of 
which desire our floras and faunas are encumbered with 
names and synomyms, two thirds of which have no claim to 
be there at all. This evil has been, and still is, most virulent 
amongst the students of the Diatomacez, probably because 
the Diatomacee have attracted the attention of a larger 
number of microscopic observers than any other class of 
minute organisms. Professor Ehrenberg unfortunately adopted 
the plan of constituting new genera and species from mere frag- 
ments; and however allowable it may be for geologists to 
make genera and species of the fragmentary remains of the 
organisms of past epochs, it is surely not desirable that recent 
forms, occurring as fragments only, or even in small quanti- 
ties, should be made into new species. 
Ehrenberg, in his ‘ Microgeologie,’ figures a genus which 
he names Symbolophora. One species he represents like an 
Actinoptychus with a triangular umbilicus; the other is a 
fragment, but showing a similar triangular centre. I have 
examined a great number of slides prepared from materials 
obtained from similar sources as Ehrenberg’s, but have never 
succeeded in obtaining a specimen of his perfect figure; the 
fragment I suppose to be a portion of Triceratium Marylandi- 
cum. This species has an irregularly triangular centre. 
A good figure is given in Mr. Brightwell’s paper published in 
the ‘Journal of Microscopical Science,’ Vol. IV, Pl. XVII, 
fig. 17. It sometimes occurs with the angles acute instead of 
rounded. 
Ehrenberg’s genera Actinoptychus, Heliopelta, and Ompha- 
lopelta, each of which contains a vast number of species, 
might all, with a little enlargement of the generic characters, 
Sal YAY eon Tag 
