Reviezv of Recent Geological Literature. 55 
We are startled by the reference of these archaic and puzzling forms 
to the calcareous Algse. They have been bandied by various authors 
from one class of the animal kingdom to another. Billings, who first 
described them, thought they were silicious sponges, and Prof. H. A. 
Nicholson and Mr. Walcott supported this opinion. Bornemann who had 
an excellent opportunity to study the Sardinian forms, concluded that 
they were a special group of Coelenterata. Dr. Hindc who re-studied 
the Canadian species concluded that one was a lithistid sponge, and the 
rest were to be referred to a distinct family of the Zoantharia-schlero- 
dermata. Meek thought Archseocyathus (Ethmopryllum) a true 
coral. Sir Wm. Dawson, however, thought two of the Canadian spe- 
cies to be Foraminifera. 
Baron Toll discusses these conflicting opinions, and having de- 
scribed a new genus Rhabdocyathus, comes to the conclusion that 
through it he has reached the true solution of the zoological standing 
of the Archaeocyathinse, namely that they are a primitive development 
of the calciferous Algae, and are related to the recent Acetabularia and 
the Tertiary Acicularia. 
Among the material from Siberia Toll claims that he has found 
evidence of the embryonic stages of the archseocyathines, and figures 
a minute stalked cup with a detachable lid which he conceives to have 
been the starting point of an Archseocyathus. In his new genus, Rhab- 
docyathus, in which he sees a more primitive archseocyathine than in 
the others, the lower part of the tube has separate outer and inner 
walls, but in the upper part these walls come together forming a solid 
wall; in this genus there are no septos, but the walls are perforate as in 
the others. Baron Toll regards the connecting tubules that pass from the 
inner to the outer wall in the archseocythines as passages for the spores, 
which thus escape from the inner cavity. While warmly advocating his 
view of the algoid relationship of the Archasocyathinre he speaks of it 
as a hypothesis, thus inviting criticism of its soundness. 
The earlier part of Baron Toll's work is devoted to a description 
of the literature of the Siberian Cambrian, in which he refers to the 
earlier work of Dr. F. Schmidt on a more limited collection of Cam- 
brian fossils, from some of the localities from which the later collec- 
tions came, that have been examined by Toll. Dr. Schmidt had placed 
some of these fossils as Devonian, but Toll correctly refers them to 
the Cambrian. One of these is a Dorypyge, three others are referred 
to the genera Anomocare. Loistracus and Solcnopleura (?), (Plate II). 
A pygidium on the same plate referred to Batliynnis howelli, ]Valc., 
Itas a wider flattened margin than is common in that species. 
On plate I are figured a number of new species of trilobites etc., 
from the new localities whose fossils have been studied by Baron Toll. 
Two minute species which are referred to Ptychoparia might also 
with propriety be compared with the Strenuella type of Agraulos, and 
especially with Strenuella attlehorensis S and F (Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., 
2 Ser., vol. V, sec. iv., p. jy). An Agnostus of the Loevigati group has 
unusual asosciations if occurring in strata with the interesting Micro- 
