9 
pendently and at different times from the Lafoeidæ , the family 
Campanulinidæ being thus of polyphyletic origin. In the latter 
theory I quite agree with Le vin sen, but then it seems to me rather 
artificially to keep the operculate genera together as a “family”; 
in any case I do not agree with Levinsen in separating Toicho- 
poma from the Lafoeidæ. Levinsen (and Broch) are wholly 
right, that the gonosomes have only a very little value for classi- 
fication, but I am of the opinion, that the discoverv of the 
typical coppinia of Toichopoma completes the range of resemblances 
to Lafoea, especially L. fruticosa, so that one can hardly have any 
doubt of their close relationship. The step from Lafoea to Toicho¬ 
poma is short, but it is a progress; Toichopoma must be considered 
as a comparatively highly developed form, and it yields no proof 
of the relationship of the Lafoeidæ to the Campanulinidæ. We do 
not use to seek the connecting links among the highly differentiated 
forms, and moreover the operculum of Toichopoma has no likeness 
with the operculum of any of the genera referred to the Campa¬ 
nulinidæ', it is undoubtedly an independent feature without relation 
to the other opercula known. 
Thus we must release Levinsen’s definition of the family 
Lafoeidæ as only containing inoperculate forms. Nor can the definition 
based on the aggregation of the gonothecæ into coppinia or scapus 
be maintained, because, as mentioned by Levinsen, 1913, we 
know some few Lafoeidæ (species of Hehella, Cryptolaria and Hali- 
siphonia ) with separated gonothecæ. The Lafoeidæ have as a rule 
aggregated gonothecæ and as a rule inoperculate hydrothecæ. The 
hydrothecæ are more or less tubular but of various shape: sessile or 
stalked, straight, oblique or curvated. As regards the form of the 
colony almost every possible mode of growth is represented. Thus 
the family seems badly defined. In order to examine, whether the 
group can nevertheless be maintained as a proper family, we are 
obliged to regard the facts within related groups. The nearest 
relatives of the Lafoeidæ are to be sought among the „ Campanu- 
linidæf The determination of the relations between the different 
