28 HENRY B. BRADV. 



projecting sand-grains or fragments of stone, the interior is 

 throughout even and smooth. 



The tendency of the animal to attach itself to foreign 

 bodies is revealed in many different ways; sometimes a frag- 

 ment but little smaller than the remainder of the test, is built 

 into the wall; in other cases the shell is erected, tent-like, upon 

 a stone. In one of the "Challenger" dredgings (Station 122 — 

 350 fathoms, off the coast of Brazil) minute specimens are 

 very common, and in a large proportion of them the test is 

 built upon or around a sponge-spicule. One of these, with 

 the side partially ground to show the interior, is represented 

 in PI. II, fig. 2. 



It is somewhat remarkable that, notwithstanding the thick- 

 ness of the test and its rough composite texture, these sandy 

 spheres are quite translucent when fresh, and they retain 

 their character for a long period if preserved in glycerine or 

 diluted alcohol. 



The specimens described by Professor Schulze were found 

 in mud, from depths of 100 to 200 fathoms, in the North 

 Sea, but the species is of not unfrequent occurrence in the 

 " Challenger " material from stations both in the North and 

 South Atlantic and in the North Pacific, at depths varying 

 from 250 to 2740 fathoms. In the deeper dredgings the 

 examples are invariably small. 



Psammosphcera fiisca may also be added to the list of 

 British species, as it occurs in sands dredged in Loch Scavaig 

 (Skye) from 45 to 60 fathoms. 



Gewt/s— SOROSPH^RA, nov. 



[aiopog, heap ; crcpdipa, a sphere.) 



SoROSPH^RA CONFUSA, n.sp. PI. IV, figs. 18, 19. 



Characters. — Test free, irregular ; consisting of a number 

 of convex or sphseroidal chambers, either discrete or more or 

 less embracing, irregularly crowded together. Walls thin, 

 loosely arenaceous in texture. General aperture, none. 

 Long diameter of large specimens, -^ inch (4'5 millim.). 



There is, so far as I am aware, no recognised genus in 

 which the large irregular polythalamous Rhizopods, with 

 characters somewhat roughly indicated in the foregoing de- 

 scription, can be properly placed. One of their most striking 

 features is the absence of any general aperture. In none 

 of the specimens I have met with can any definite general 

 pseudopodial orifice be detected. One or two of them have 

 a sort of crack or fissure in the depression between two of 



