1879.] Physiology and Histology 0/ Convoluta Schultzii. 449 



must obviously have gone off the branches — either to ordinary ones or 

 to pairs of fruit-spikes. 



Myriads of the vegetable fragments both from Oldham and Halifax 

 are drilled in all directions with rounded insect or worm borings, and 

 further traces of these xylophagous animals are seen in innumerable 

 clusters of small Coprolites of various sizes ; the size of those com- 

 posing each cluster being uniform. 



Desirous of verifying Count Castracane's alleged discovery of 

 Diatoms in coal, specimens of twenty-two examples of coal from 

 various localities in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Australia were reduced, 

 after the Count's method, to a small residue of ash. This work was 

 done for me in the chemical laboratory of Owens College through the 

 kindness of Professor Roscoe. Like Mr. F. Kitton, of Norwich, the 

 Rev. E. O'Meara, of Dublin, and the Rev. G. Davidson, of Logie Cold- 

 stone, I have failed to discover the slightest trace of these organisms 

 in coal. 



The last objects described are some minute organisms from the Car- 

 boniferous limestones of Rhydmwyn, in Flintshire, and which were 

 supposed by Professor Judd to have been siliceous Radiolarians from 

 which the silica had disappeared and been replaced by carbonate of 

 lime. I fail to find any confirmation of this conclusion. The objects 

 appear to me to constitute an altogether new group of calcareous 

 spherical organisms that may either have been allied to the Foram- 

 nif era, or have had some affinities with the Rhabdoliths and Coccoliths. 

 I have proposed for several species of the organisms the generic name 

 of OcUcisjphcera. Myriads of objects of similar character, but of larger 

 size, constitute the greater portion of a Corniferous limestone from 

 the Devonian beds of Kelly's Island, U.S.A. 



II. " Observations on the Physiology and Histology of Convoluta 

 ' Schultzii." By P. Geddes. Communicated by J. Burdon 

 Sanderson, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physiology in 

 University College, London. Received March 10, 1879. 



Part I. — Physiology. 



Chlorophylloid green colouring matters are known to exist in the 

 tissues of a not inconsiderable number of animals belonging to very 

 various invertebrate groups — Protozoa, Porifera, Ccelenterata, Vermes, 

 and even Crustacea ;* but all information as to the function of chloro- 

 phyll in the animal organism is wanting. Wohler, it is true, found 

 many years ago that Chlamydomonas, Puglena, &c, evolve oxygen in 

 sunlight, and Schmidt prepared from Puglena viridis a body isomeric 

 * See list in Sach's " Botany," Eng. ed., p. 687, note. 



