58 Geological Society. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



November 2, 1881.— R. Etheridge, Esq., E.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following communication was read : — 



" On the Genus StoUczharia, Dune, and its Distinctness from 

 Fai-l-en'a, Carp, and Brady." Py Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B. 

 Lond., r.R.S., F.G.S., Pres. R.M.S. 



The author discussed in detail the characters of his Syringospha3- 

 ridtB, a group of Rhizopoda established by him for the reception of 

 the spheroidal organisms known in India as Karakoram stones. 



The order Syringosphteridaj consists of spherical or spheroidal 

 bodies composed of numbers of conical radiating congeries of minute, 

 continuous, long, bifurcating and inosculating tubes, and of an inter- 

 radial tube-roticulation arising from and surrounding the radial 

 congeries. The tubes open at the surface in eminences and in pores. 

 The walls of the tubes consist of granular and subspiculate carbo- 

 nate of lime. There is no coenenchyma. In fSi/ringospJueria (fully 

 characterized by the author in ' Scientific Results of the Yarkand 

 Mission,' Calcutta, 1879 p. 10), the body is covered Avith large 

 compound wart-like prominences with intermediate verrucosities, or 

 with modifications of such structures ; and between these eminences 

 are shallow depressions bounded by tubes. The surface has tubes 

 opening upon it from the internal radial series and also from the 

 interradial reticulation ; there are also masses of tubes running over 

 it and converging on the eminences. In Stoliczl-aria, a second 

 genus, the surface is covered by numerous granulations, separated by 

 intervals about equal to their breadth. There are no pores on the 

 surface ; but tube-openings occur in the granulations. The central 

 ones, which are small, are the terminations of the very numerous 

 radial series, which, in section, are not very conical but nearly 

 straight ; and give ofl' minute off^shoots to the surrounding convo- 

 luted and varicose larger tubes of the interradial series, which open 

 towards the periphery of the granulations. There is no coenen- 

 chyma. The species is named Stoliczkaria (jrannlata. 



The author compared the structure of the Syringosphajridte with 

 that of Farheria, to which they have a considerable resem- 

 blance in external appearance. The internal structure difters. 

 Parheria shows a radial series of large tubes, a system of inter- 

 spaces in concentric series, and a labyrinthic structure of irrogu- 

 larly-sha])ed chamberlets, communicating with each other and 

 cancellous in appearance. The interspaces are traversed by one or 

 more large radial tubes ; and the floor of each interspace towards 

 the centre is made up of the minute chamberlet structm-e, the 

 openings of which communicate only with the interspace beyond. 

 The labyrinthic structure sometimes stretches across the interspaces. 



