about 70 feet in thickness, and consists of the following strata : Boulder Clay from 5 to 15 feet thick. Wormhole Beds Quarry Men's Crapley Beds 30 0* 1 6 White Bed, with a clay parting of 2in. 30 0 ... ... 10 0 Where the outcrop of the conglomerate occurs this Lumpy Bed is certainly more than 50 feet in thickness. As no traces of the conglomerate are found in the quarry, I conclude that it is local in its origin; and though the rocks contained in it have certainly been. brought in Permian times from a distance at least of fifteen or twenty miles westward, the formation does not seem to have been glacial, but to have been the result of river gravel deposit cemented together by subsequent calcareous Permian deposits. The Lumpy Bed seems to occur at Humbleton near Sunderland, and at Garforth near Leeds. In the latter place the beds abound with Axinus obsurus, which also occurs at the western edge of the lowest position of the Lumpy Bed, about a mile from the outcrop in Markington. The so-called Crapley Bed is a marked feature in the Quarry, running through its whole length, at an angle of 6° N.E., and consists of a bed of White Limestone, separated from the beds above and below by thin beds consisting of broken fragments of limestone. the origin of which does not seem to be very clear. # To this I drew the attention of the Society at a previous meeting. BRITISH PALEOZOIC CTENOSTOMATOUS POLYZOA. BY GEORGE ROBERT VINE. (PLATES III. and IV.) In the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for 1877, Dr. H. A. Nicholson and R. Etheridge, jun., published a paper on some peculiar parasitic organisms found in the Devonian Rocks of Ontario, and the Carboniferous Rocks of Scotland. The species described and illustrated were :— 2. 1. Ascodictyon fusiforme, Nich. & Eth. jun., p. 463, pl. 19, figs. 7-8. stellatum, Nich. & Eth. jun., p. 464, pl. 19. figs. 1-6. radians, Nich. & Eth. jun., p. 465, pl. 19, figs. 9-11. 3. Of these species the authors say (p. 466), "After a very careful examination of a considerable number of specimens of the singular organisms which we have grouped together under the name of Ascodictyon, and after taking the opinion of several of our fellowworkers, we are still unable to express a positive opinion of their precise zoological position and relationships." They then cite the opinions, respecting the peculiar organisms, of Dr. Strethell Wright,† "who was unable to throw any light upon their nature;" of Professor Huxley, "who, after considerable hesitation, suggested that they might be protozoans;" of "our friend Mr. H. B. Brady, who, after a protracted examination of both the Scotch and the American forms, arrived at the conclusion that they cannot be referred to this group." Through the kindness of Mr. John Young, of Glasgow; I have in my possession some of the examples which were submitted by him to Mr. Brady for examination. After this some of the American specimens "of A. fusiforme and A. stellatum were kindly submitted by Mr. H. B. Brady to the Rev. T. Hincks, who suggested that they were possibly allied to the recent Anguinaria." The authors would not * On Ascodictyon, a new provisional and anomalous genus of Palæozoic Fossils, ser. 4, vol. xix., Journ. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., vol, ii., p. commit themselves to any definite opinion as to the systematic position of the fossils described, but they remarked (p. 467) "Our A. fusiforme. . presents a close superficial resemblance to the creeping base of Anguinaria (Ætea) spatulata; but in the absence of any evidence in the fossils of the existence of erect cells with distinct apertures for the polypides, it would be hazardous to regard this suggestion as being more than a conjecture. The only other recent forms to which we can find any likeness with Ascodictyon are some of the Sertularians (e.g. S. pumila), there being a decided resemblance between the thread-like fibres which creep along the foreign bodies to which these organisms are attached, and which connect the polypiferous shoots and the netted stolons of A. radians and A. stellatum. In other respects, however, the structure of Ascodictyon is by no means Hydrozoal." In one of Mr. E. O. Ulrich's earlier papers, amongst other descriptions of new genera and species of fossils from the Lower Silurian about Cincinnati,* the author founded a new genus, "Rhopalonaria," for the reception of an equally obscure organism encrusting Streptelasma corniculum, Hall. The species was placed in the family Crisida. Mr. Ulrich says (op, cit., p. 27) "on account of the great delicacy of the fossil, the fronds themselves are rarely found, but instead we find a series of impressions on the exterior coat of the Streptelasma, which very well represents the fronds and cells of the same." I have in my possession an example of Mr. Ulrich's species, and I find that it is well described and figured in the work already referred to (p. 26). 4. Rhopalonaria venosa, Ul. (op. cit., p. 26, pl. 7, figs. 24-24c.) When Dr. Nicholson's and Mr. R. Etheridge's paper was published, I was already in possession of fine examples of Scotch Carboniferous forms encrusting crinoid stems derived from the Hairmyres Shales; later on these were added to, and just recently a very fine series of the Carboniforous forms from the Calderwood Shales have been given to me by Mr. John Young, so as to enable me to work out details which have been as yet only partially described. The evidence, however, on which I rely for more faithful determination is derived from the study of several hundreds of examples brought to light in my close and careful examination of the organic debris of the Wenlock Shales. I have already described many of the organisms found in Mr. Maw's washings, but there still remains several groups to work out more carefully than I have yet been able to do, and in all probability this will form an initial paper of a far more elaborate series than I have previously attempted. The reason for this may be briefly stated. In the various States of America details of the Paleozoic faunas have been and are being published. Some of the Palæozoic horizons are similar to our own, especially the Upper Silurian and the Sub-carboniferous, and the Polyzoa or Bryozoa† of these horizons have been more systematically worked out, described, and illustrated by American authors than by us. From time to time, as the work progresses, I am kept supplied with typical examples of species of the Bryozoa for comparison with our own, and also with the literature of the subject whenever published. For this reason many of the Wenlock Shale Polyzoa have been re-studied and many apparently allied forms separated for comparison and description. The present group of organic forms, which I now place amongst the Ctenostomatous Polyzoa, as described by Hincks and others, is the outcome of matured knowledge and more careful selection. I am fully aware of the difficulties that I have to encounter in thus attempting to arrange systematically a series of fossils of such obscure types, especially when so many experts have failed. It may be well, therefore, to state briefly by what means I arrive at my present conclusions. * See Geol. Mag., 1881, (Jan. and March) for remarks by Mr. Davidson and Mr. Maw. In all my own writings I prefer to use the term Polyzoa rather than Bryozoa, not that I have any prejudice against the use of the latter. Whenever I use the words in unison, as above, I do so in deference to the opinions of others who differ from me. With Continental authors, however, the words Polyzoa and Bryozoa are generally speaking synonymous, but American authors frequently include under the head line Bryozoa forms which Professor Nicholson and others describe as Monticulipora, &c., or Cœlenterata. In a modified sense, perhaps, American authors may be truer to nature than their British opponents. In 1881 I published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society the names of two Silurian species as members of Ascodictya, as follows: : Ascodictyon stellatum, var. Siluriense, Vine, p. 618. radians? Nich. and Eth. (Provisional) p. 619. In Feb., 1882, in another paper, "Notes of the Polyzoa of the Wenlock Shales," I gave fuller details of Ascodictya species, with figures, as follows: 5. Ascodictyon stellatum, var. Siluriense, Vine, p. 52, figs. 1-2. radiciforme, Vine, p. 53, fig. 3. In 1884, in the Annals and Mag. Nat. History, I did my best to grapple with the systematic position of the fossils, which had by that time proved to be very abundant both as individuals, specific and varietal, in the Wenlock Shales. After reviewing the whole of the literature known to me up to date, giving the various opinions of authors already published, I ventured on a new departure on my own account. On page 87 1 remarked, "There are not, so far as I am aware, any Cyclostomatous Polyzoa, which may be considered truly Stoloniferous. Some of the Hydrozoa are, but I know of none whose stolons are adherent to stone or shell, such as are found in these ancient rocks; neither am I aware that the Stoloniferous Ctenostomatous Polyzoa are adherent to stone and shell, like Ascodictyon or Rhopalonaria. Yet it seems to me that we have in Ascodictyon filiforme, at least, primitive representatives of Stoloniferous Vesiculariidie, such as Vesicularia or Bowerbankia, or possibly some member of the more humble race of the Entoprocta. Barrois has already . spoken of a pro-Bryozoan race, composed of free swimming organisms. May [not] Ascodictyon be the attached or larval form of some of the as yet unknown pre-Upper-Silurian types of organic life, Polyzoan or otherwise?" * Silurian Uniserial Stomatopora and Ascodictya. Nov., pp. 613-619. + This species is fully described in the paper referred to, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Aug., 1884, p. 78. On the Embryogeny of the Cyclostomatous Polyzoa, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Nov., 1882, p. 402. |