On Traquairia. 
BY 
RINA SCOTT (Mrs. D. H. SCOTT), F.L.S. 
With Plates XXXIX and XL and four Figures in the Text. 
HE genus Traquairia was named by Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S., after 
X his friend, Dr. Traquair, then of Dublin, in 1872. The specimens were 
originally described by him before Section D, at the meeting of the British 
Association at Brighton, in 1872, in a paper entitled: ‘On Traquairia , 
a Radiolarian Rhizopod, from the Coal Measures.’ 
I append a part of his description : ‘ A spherical spiniferous body, the 
hollow globular cavity is included in a clearly defined structure, probably 
a fenestrated shell. Beyond this, there is a considerable thickness of 
a spongy substance, which rises externally into numerous cones, the 
bases of which are in close proximity. From the apex of each cone, 
there proceeds a hollow echinate spine. The echinations are also hollow, 
and at the apparent base of the spine these echinations are produced into 
hollow tubes which, repeatedly branching and anastomosing and increasing 
in number downwards, enclose the radial hollow spines in the mass.’ 
I have also had a reproduction made of Mr. Carruthers’s original 
diagram, which he kindly gave me two years ago (Text-fig. 1). 
Since this paper was written, there has been a great diversity of opinion 
as to the real nature of Traquairia. Count Solms-Laubach 1 says : c Tra- 
quairia and Sporocarpon appear to me and also to Strasburger, if comparable 
to anything, to be like either the massulae of Azolla or the sporocarps which 
contain them.’ After a description of these genera he adds that they are 
well worth further investigation. Dr. Schenk 2 and Professor Zeiller 3 agree 
with Count Solms’s view. 
The subject has been dealt with in greatest detail by Professor 
Williamson, 4 who produced a paper in the Transactions of the Royal Society 
1 Einleitung in die Palaophytologie, 1887, p. 188. 
2 Handbuch der Botanik, Bd. iv, 1890, pp. 52, 53. 
3 Elements de Paleobotanique, p. 130. 
1 On the Organization of the Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures, Pt. x. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 
Pt. 2, 1880, PI. XVIII, Figs. 40, 41, 42, 45, 46, 49; PI. XIX, Figs. 40, 44, 49, 50; PI. XX, 
Figs. 85, 86, 78. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXV. No- XCVIII. April, 1911. 
