18G Mr. H. J. Carter on the Polytremata. 



we may now add not only the whole of the Foraminifera, but 

 also Ehrenberg's Polycystina, now called Radiolaria. 



Ever since 1858, when the late Dr. J. E. Gray published 

 a paper entitled "On Carpentena and Diijardima, two genera 

 of a new Form of Polyzoa with attached Multilocular Shells 

 filled with Sponge, apparently intermediate between Rhizopoda 

 and Porifera " (Proc. Zool. Soc. part xxvi. 1858, pp. 266-271), 

 I have been ever doubtful of this supposed fact being any 

 thing more than in ajjpeai-ance, as the title just mentioned in- 

 dicates, while the author (my dear old friend, alas ! only "dear" 

 now to memory) entirely repudiated the notion during the 

 latter part of his life. 



Subsequently, according to the late Prof. Max Schultze, to 

 whose paper on Polytrema I shall often have to allude ('Annals,' 

 1863, vol. xii. p. 411, translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., 

 from Wiegmann's 'Archiv,' 1863, p. 81), "At Dr. Gray's re- 

 quest. Carpenter then more fully investigated the structures 

 arranged in the genus Carpenteria^ and published a memoir 

 in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1860 (vol. cl. p. 564 

 etseq.), in which he also mentions the Polytrema miniaceum of 

 De Blainville as an organism wliich possesses a foraminiferous 

 structure of the calcareous shell, and is most nearly allied to 

 the genus Tinoporus (p. 561). Carpenter found the sponge- 

 spicules constantly in the chambers of the Polythalamian 

 named after him, and intimates his adhesion to Gray's view 

 that it is a transition form between Foraminifera and Sponges." 



I have not access to this " memoir ;" but as Carpenter's 

 * Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera ' (Ray Soc. 

 Publ. 1862) was published after it, we must take the more 

 cautious phraseology used there respecting tlie nature of Car- 

 penteria^ which is as follows (p. 189), viz. "We seem fully 

 justified in regarding it \_Carpente7'{a\ as a very interesting link 

 of connexion between Foraminifera and the Sponges." Thus 

 Carpenter was never very hearty in his assertion ; for the word 

 " seem " indicates that he had still some misgiving as to the 

 fact. 



Prof. Max Schultze, however, after having carefully gone into 

 the arguments for and against the question, concludes his article 

 with the following paragraph : — 



" For this reason I cannot regard the conditions mCarpenteria 

 otherwise than as in Polytrema^ and therefore believe that 

 the boundary between Polythalamia and Sponges, which has 

 hitherto been considered as a very sharp line, must still be 

 maintained in all its integrity " (/. c. p. 418). 



Up to his writing tliis Max Schultze had not seen Car- 

 penter's ' Introduction ;' but after he had done so he added a 



