362 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



EHIZOPODA. 



Among the Ehizopoda, Nicholson and Etheridge have 

 noted the occurrence of Saccamina Carteri in the Stinchar 

 limestone of Girvan, which is of Upper Llandeilo age, 

 and the observation is confirmed in a note by the late 

 H. B. Brady.i 



A widespread deposit of Eadiolarian Chert, occupying a 

 definite geological horizon between the Middle Arenig and 

 the Upper Llandeilo groups, was met with by the Geological 

 Survey during the revision of the Silurian rocks of the 

 Southern Uplands of Scotland, in the years 1888 and 1889. 

 Bounded bodies were detected in the cherts in the field by 

 myself, and these were subsequently determined, by the late 

 Professor H. A. Nicholson and Dr G. J. Hinde, to be the 

 remains of Kadiolaria. A suite of specimens was then sent 

 to Dr Hinde in 1890, who published the results of their 

 examination in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 

 He described twenty-two species of Eadiolaria new to science, 

 which range themselves under twelve genera. Of these, six 

 new genera required to be made to receive certain forms, 

 while the rest belong to genera still living, which had 

 already been named by Hseckel, Ehrenberg, and Meyen.^ 



These six genera, like the Foraminiferal genus Saccamina 

 above mentioned, are thus shown to range from Lower 

 Silurian time to the present day; but this is what might 

 be expected to occur with such lowly and undifferentiated 

 organisms. According to Barrels, Eadiolaria are the oldest 

 known animal organisms, since Spumtilaria (Mono- 

 sphseroidse) occur plentifully in the bituminous quartzites 

 of Bretagne, interbedded with pre-Cambrian gneiss.^ 



POEIFEEA. 



The chief work done among Scottish Fossil Sponges, dur- 

 ing the period in review, is by Dr G. J. Hinde. In 1883 

 appeared his " Catalogue of the Fossil Sponges of the British 



1 "Mon. Girvan Silurian Fossils," pp. 21, 24, 1880. 



^ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. vi. p. 40, 1890. 



3 Eastman's translation of "Zittel's Palseontology, " p. 39, 1900. 



