Prof. M. Schultze on the Genus Cornuspira. 307 



At that time I was only acquainted with specimens from Mo- 

 zambique, Trieste, and the West Indies. I had not seen living 

 examples ; but specimens preserved in spirit allowed the animal 

 contents of the shell (the body of the Rhizopod) to be distinctly 

 recognized. 



Further inquiries, made as opportunities offered, brought me 

 examples of the same genus from many other places ; and I have 

 subsequently, at Trieste, observed many living individuals which 

 crept about briskly. They may be obtained from almost any 

 sponge freshly taken from the sea, during the pulling to pieces 

 of which, quantities of small shelled and shell-less Rhizopods 

 always make their appearance. It is by no means necessary to 

 take sponges brought from the bottom of the sea, in which con- 

 tamination by sand and mud might be the cause of the simul- 

 taneous occurrence of Rhizopoda -, but even the species growing 

 close beneath the surface of the sea — such, for example, as the 

 Grantia {Sycon ciliatum, Risso) which abounds upon the wood- 

 work of the baths in the harbour of Trieste — furnish, when 

 pulled to pieces, great numbers of Mono- and Polythalamia, 

 especially in a young state. 



Cornuspira have also been discovered in a fossil state, and 

 described by Reuss*. 



Williamson found several species on the English coast. He, 

 however, rejects the name Cornuspira, and replaces it hy Spirillina, 

 giving as the author Ehrenberg. The place in which Ehrenberg 

 first describes his Spirillina, and which indeed is cited by Wil- 

 liamson, is in the * Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissen- 

 schaften zu Berlin' for the year 1841. In the memoir on the 

 " Distribution and Influence of Microscopic Life in South and 

 North America,^' p. 402, the genus " Spirillina, Kieselspirale," 

 arranged under the Polygastrica, is thus characterized : — " Genus 

 e familia Arcellinorum ? Lorica tubulosa spiralis silicea, Plan- 

 orbem referens ( = Difflugia lorica silicea);" and further on is 

 added, " Acid had no action on the shell." From this, and from 

 the figure given by Ehrenberg (pi. 3. fig. 41) of the only species, 

 " Spirillina vivipara," described by him in the place cited, we 

 have to do with a shell similar in form to our Cornuspira, but, 

 according to Ehrenberg's repeated assertion, of siliciou^ and not 

 calcareous nature. As, however, my genus Cornuspira was 

 founded for animals with a calcareous shell, and also, according 

 to Ehrenberg's nomenclature, belongs, not to the Polygastrica, 

 but to the Polythalamia (or rather Monothalamia), it cannot* 

 possibly be regarded as identical with Spirillina, Ehrbg. ; and 

 as Williamson's Spirillince are Foraminifera, and therefore cal- 



* Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akad. der Wiss. I860, " Die Foraminifereu 

 der westphalischen Kreideformation." 



