70 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [March, 



should have such a distinctive title. Now, those three reasons 

 apply with almost if not quite equal force to the Radiolaria. It is 

 just as true of the Radiolaria as of the Diatomaceas that, to quote 

 his words, they " can become the basis of one of the most im- 

 pressive, instructive, and engaging branches of pure science that 

 may occupy the attention of the human mind. 



" Firstly, on account of its power in gratifying the purely natural 

 impulse inherent in the mind to be impressed with whatever is 

 beautiful in nature. 



"Secondly, from its being a legitimate line of research inde- 

 pendent of the merely beautiful, practical, or pecuniar}*. 



" Thirdly, the study .... from merely an observational point of 

 view, whether in relation to their place in nature, what role their 

 creation was intended to fill in the economy of nature or of earth- 

 building, and their biological functions, .... is capable of draw- 

 ing forth the highest and best efforts of mental genius, erudition, 

 and the power of the judicial and critical qualities in bright 

 minds, in dealing with the numerous problems suggested by 

 repeated and lengthy association with their investigation. A field 

 of human efibrt is here oftered well worthy of capable minds."* 

 And a field, mind you, which on this side of the water has not, 

 to my knowledge, been worked at all. If Leidy did not think it 

 beneath him to devote himself to the fresh-water rhizopods, 

 why should any one scorn their marine relations.^ If he were to 

 confine himself to the Barbadoes deposits alone he would then 

 have more genera to consider than Leidy described — considerably 

 more, for the genera of the fresh-water rhizopods as given by 

 Leidy only number 30, but the genera of the Radiolaria of Bar- 

 badoes as described by Ehrenberg number 43, or as classified 

 by Haeckel, 56, nearly twice as many. I have already mentioned 

 the fact that Ehrenberg found 282 species in that earth, that 

 Mrs. Bury added 141 more, and that Haeckel says the list is not 

 ended yet, but that the tcTtal number of species in that deposit 

 alone is probably over 500. Are not they enough to begin on, 

 especially as there is a chance of discovering nearly So new 

 species.? And here let me say, for the encouragement of others, 

 that I have already found a large number of those given by 

 Ehrenberg, and quite a number that are not figured by him. I 

 worked at that material all summer and picked out and mounted 

 on type-plates nearly 500 forms. Many of these proved to be 

 duplicates, and quite a number, as I have said, were not in Ehren- 

 berg ; but here is the list of those I was able to identify. 



Cenosphsera micropora. Spongosphsera pachvstyla. 

 Stylosphsera liostylus. rhabdostyla. 



sulcata. Haliomma sol. 



lievis. nobile. 



coronata. apertum.- 



flexuosa. contiguum. 



spinulosa? umbonatum. 



* Amer. Mo. Mic. Jour., Nov. 1892, pp. 249-250. 



