Geological Society of London. 567 



keep up tlie regular publication of a series of exhaustive treatises 

 on the plan of our own Paheontographical Memoirs. Those engaged 

 in palEeontological work knew well the value of these publications, 

 and could appreciate the labour and care necessary to keep going 

 such a large undertaking. He felt sure that much more support 

 could and would be offered to our Swiss fellow-labourers and our 

 good friend Renevier, if the English public could be made aware of 

 the important work they were doing. He therefore invited the co- 

 operation of the members of the Society in the matter. 



The President announced that at the next meeting of the Society 

 Prof. Hughes would state what were the general results achieved 

 by the International Geological Congress held this year at Bologna.' 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On the Genus StoUczlcaria, Dune, and its Distinctness from 

 Parlceria, Carp, and Brady." By Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S. 



The author discussed in detail the characters of his Syringosphse- 

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

 the spheroidal organisms known in India as Karakoram stones. 



The order Syringosph^ridse 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-reticulation 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 Syringosphcei'ia (fully 

 characterized by the author in " Scientific Results of the Yarkand 

 Mission," Calcutta, 1879, p. 10) the body is covered with 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 StoUczlcaria, 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 ai'e small, are the terminations of the very numerous 

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

 straight, and give off minute offshoots to the surrounding convoluted 

 and varicose larger tubes of the interradial series, which open to- 

 wards the periphery of the granulations. There is no coenenchyma. 

 The species is named Stoliczkaria granulata. 



He then proceeded to compare the structure of the Syringo- 

 sph^ridaa with that of Parlceria, with which they have a consider- 

 able resemblance in external appearance. The internal structure 

 differs. Parlceria shows a radial series of large tubes, a system 

 of interspaces in concentric series, and a labyrinthic structure of 

 irregularly-shaped chamberlets, communicating with each other and 

 cancellous in appearance. The interspaces are traversed by one or 



1 This is given by Mr. Topley, see ante pp. 557-561. 



