386 J. D. Dana on Oceanic Protozoans related to Sponges. 
phyllacee of our time. Prof. Geinitz, indeed, has published, in 
his magnificent work on the fossil plants of Saxony, as fructifi- 
cations of Annularia, (pl. 18, figs. 8 and 9) a beautiful cylindri- 
eal long ear with an articulated and striated stem, bearing, at the 
articulations, whorls of short, linear, pointed leaves, and in their 
axils round sporanges or fruits. These fruits are undoubtedly 
of the same kind as those of the fragments described above, and, 
to my belief, belong to the genus Asterophyllites. Against my 
opinion, still is this fact: that nothing, among our recent ferns, 
would lead us to suppose that there ever lived species of ferns 
with whorled leaves. But we see, in the vegetation of the coal 
epoch, some peculiar features of a far nrore abnormal and unex- 
plainable character. The question can be decided only by well 
preserved specimens. And though I have recently seen two 
specimens of Annularia sphenophylloides Ung., the one from 
Newport, R. 1, the other from Illinois, whose appearance did 
perfectly agree with what I suppose to be the fruit-bearing leaves 
of Annularia, this appearance is not distinct enough to permit 
a positive assertion. If my supposition concerning the fructifi- 
cations of Annularia should be confirmed, this genus would ap- 
E~ as a link of transition between the Zguiselacee and the 
erns, as the genus Sphenophyllum appears to be one between 
the Lycopodiacee and the Ferns. 
Art. XXXIX.—On two Oceanic species of Protozoans related to 
the Sponges; by JAMES D. Dana. 
THE Spheerozoum figured below (fig. 1a) was collected by = 
writer in the Pacific, near latitude 30° N. and longitude 173° 
W., during a calm, on the 26th of May, 1841. ee 
Figure la represents the gelatinous globule of natural size : 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
The ocean’s waters were filled with this species, and eat 
presented in figure 2a. The minute dots covering the gloouts 
_ oneof which is magnified in figure 14, were closely crowded xe 
_ Shown in figure la. In this respect, the species d widely 
