112 CARBONIFEROUS AND PERMIAN FORAMINIFERA. 



having no primary significance. The infiltrated condition of the specimens and 

 consequent obliteration of structural details preclude the determination of anything 

 beyond general characteristics ; but the appearance of thin sections (PI. IX, fig. 5), 

 and the reticulation which may often be noticed over portions of the surface (fig. 1 

 &c.), alike indicate that the organism is composed of a multitude of minute closely 

 packed chambers, though what is the nature of the communication between them I have 

 been unable to determine. 



The internal appearance of S.polytrematoides is much less difficult to understand. Not 

 only are the specimens less altered by time and external agencies, but we have the guidance 

 of two almost isomorphous recent types, whose structure is already well understood, namely, 

 Polytrema and Nubecularia. Both these genera were classed by the earlier naturalists 

 amongst " Zoophytes, " and the knowledge of their real affinity and their position in the 

 animal kingdom is due to the observations of a succession of naturalists, notably of 

 Dujardin, Parker and Jones, Carpenter, and Max Schultze. 1 Without the data furnished by 

 their researches, the minute fossil organisms which have been grouped under the generic 

 term Stacheia would naturally have fallen into the same category. Any doubt which I 

 might at first have entertained on the ground of their somewhat ambiguous characters was 

 dispelled by submitting the specimens to Dr. Carpenter and Prof. W. K. Parker, in the 

 desire to have an entirely independent judgment upon them. After examination both 

 these gentlemen unhesitatingly confirmed the views I had arrived at, adding somewhat 

 by their remarks and comparisons to the elucidation of the structural characters. 

 Curiosity, rather than necessity for further confirmation, led me to submit a considerable 

 number of mountings of fossil parasitic microzoa to my friend, the Rev. T. Hincks, whose 

 varied and minute knowledge of the Polyzoa and Hydrozoa seemed likely to cause him to 

 approach the subject from the side of his own especial studies. It was therefore with 

 much gratification that I watched his separation of the forms I had already set down as 

 Foraminifera from others which he regarded as presumably Polyzoa. 



That other adherent species will be found, as the friable calcareous shales of the 

 Carboniferous beds come to be more closely searched, I have no doubt, and I can only 

 hope they will be met with in condition more favourable for the determination of 

 questions of minute structure than those which it has been my lot to examine. 



STACHEIA MARGINULINOIDES, nov. PI. VII, figs. 16 21. 



Characters. Test free (?) or adherent, uniserial; elongate, curved, subcylindrical, 

 tapering ; composed of a number of convex, more or less embracing, superimposed 

 segments. Sutures depressed. Interior of the chambers cancellated, or subdivided into 



1 And more recently Mr. Carter, see ' Postscript.' 



