308 Frederlch Chapman : 



Cktacea. 

 Vertebral epiphyses, probably of a whale B. 



Calcareous Algae. 



Lithothamiiiuin, 2 spp. One form is small and has 

 knobby or tufty branches ; the other is 

 explanate, thin and encrusting U. F. 



A large portion of the present paper is devoted to the descrip- 

 tion of two groups of fossils from the Batesford Limestone 

 which have been somewhat neglected — viz., the Foraminifera and 

 the Ostracoda. Of the first group, the sub-family of Orhi- 

 toidinae affords direct and convincing evidence as to the homo- 

 taxial equivalents of the beds in question ; and this evidence, 

 taken in conjunction with the occurrence of other fossil forms 

 which are restricted to more or less definite palaeontological 

 horizons, points to the correlation of the Batesford series of 

 the Victorian tertiaries with the Middle Miocene of Europe, 

 Asia and the East Indies. 



The great abundance of the nummulinoid genus Amphis- 

 tegiua in our tertiarv strata is additional proof of their homo- 

 taxial relationship with the Miocene elsewhere. As my revered 

 friend, Frof. Kupert Jones, has pointed out to me, the result 

 of a unique experience of European microzoic tertiary faunas, 

 the genus AmpJnstef/ina, with its inequilateral test, took the 

 place of the equilateral Nummulite towards the close of the 

 great Nummulitic period, and flourished in prodigious abun- 

 dance in Miocene times. i The Miocene forms of Amphistegina 

 are, moreover, curiously simulant of the nummuline test, as 

 they are often of large size, and flattened lenticular in contour, 

 as distinguished from tlie living forms, which are typically 

 smaller, stouter and more dome-shaped. Hence the confusion 

 of Aw pliisteyiua in Australian rocks with the smaller species 

 of y uiimiJilites as N. varioJaria. 



1 The genus Xinmitiiiitts attained itsnuixinuini developnientin middle Eocene tinus, as 

 siliown by its aliuiidant sjjecies and )arj,'e size e.;;-., N complanata, with a test often 

 exceed inj; 2A inches in diameter). It occurs more sparingly in Oligocene strata, and is 

 occasionally found as higii in the series as the middle Miocene and represented hy 

 iV. iiidsL The recent species of the geinis show some affinity with Operculina and 

 Amphistfgiiia. 



