262 Transactions of the Boyal Microscopical Society. 



III. — On Renulina Sorhyana. By J. F. Blake, F.G.S. 



{Read before the Royal Microscopical Society, May 3, 1876.) 



Twenty years ago Mr. Sorby noticed some remarkable bodies in 

 the lower calcareous grit of Scarborough, which he described in a 

 paper read before the Geological Society. These bodies were for the 

 most part agatized, as are most of the shells in the same deposit. 

 He described them as reniform viewed on the side, and oval as seen 

 behind, their size being on the average ^^q inch. In spite of their 

 metamorphosed state, some gave signs of having been originally 

 hollow, because a line of dirt parallel to the outside surface could 

 be traced within. He sums up his observations thus : " These 



facts, I think, indicate that these bodies were small shells 



Nevertheless, I will not insist on this view, for I have found cases 

 where the impurities were not arranged as if there had been a shell, 



though not in a manner irreconcilable with that supposition 



They may perhaps have been Foraminifera, although I have not 

 been able to detect any internal divisions into chambers, nor any- 

 thing to indicate that they are detached foraminiferous cells." 



Since that time no such bodies have been observed elsewhere, 

 and no further light has been thrown upon their nature. 



On examining the washings from some rubbly clay beds asso- 

 ciated with pisolite occurring at Sturminster Newton, in Dorsetshire, 

 near the base of a series of strata representing the coralline oolite 

 in time, and a little more recent than the lower calcareous grit of 

 Scarborough, I was surprised to find the material crowded with 

 such minute reniform bodies, which a comparison with Mr. Sorby 's 

 description and afterwards with his specimens themselves, left no 



u 



Renulina Sorhijana x 100 diam. 



Fig. 1. — View from behind. 

 „ 2. — Side view of a specimen, showing in parts an outer layer on the surface 



with areolate ornament. 

 „ 3. — Side view of another, in which small perforations of the shell appear. 

 „ 4. — A broken specimen, sliowing the shells are hollow. 



