44 HKNRY fi. BRADY, 



G'mws— ASCHEMONELLA, 7iov. 

 (a(TX»j/u(i>v, of Ugly shape). 



ASCHEMONELLA SCABRA, W. Sp. PI. Ill, figS. 6, 7. 



Characters. — Test free, consisting of one or more chambers 

 of irregular size and shape. Chambers inflated, often with 

 more than two tubulated apertures, any of which may pro- 

 duce a fresh segment. Walls thin, compactly built ; exte- 

 rior slightly rough, sometimes acerose with partially em- 

 bedded sponge-spicules. Segments variable in size; length 

 4- inch (3 millim.), more or less. 



This is a type the nature and afiinity of which it is very 

 difficult to comprehend. The form and size of the segments 

 might almost seem to be a matter of accident, and yet when 

 a number are seen together they bear a quite unmistakable 

 general resemblance to each other, not only in shell-texture 

 and substance, but in their habit of growth. It is im- 

 possible to describe the multiplicity of forms the chambers 

 assume. Sometimes they are elongate, straight or curved 

 tubes, with rounded or tapering ends, either unconstricted 

 or constricted at intervals, as though tied up crookedly. 

 More commonly, instead of the two terminal aper- 

 tures, that the chambers of polythalamous Foraminifera 

 usually present, the lobes have three or four, or even live, 

 tubulations, any one of which may give rise to a new segment, 

 for which it forms the stoloniferous passage. Very often 

 the segments are forked, and each branch terminates in an 

 aperture. A large proportion of the specimens have only one 

 chamber, but probably this is in part due to fracture, the 

 connecting tubes being narrow and slender in proportion to 

 the weight of the lobes, but many have two, and occa- 

 sional examples have been found with three, segments. In 

 point of size the variation is equally marked ; the individual 

 segments vary from very small dimensions up to one fifth of 

 an inch or even more in length. 



Aschemonella scahra is by no means a common species, 

 though it occurs sparingly at several of the " Challenger" 

 stations. It appears to affect deep water, for of the six 

 localities in which it has been found all have recorded 

 depths of 1000 fathoms or more, and half of them of over 2000 

 fathoms. Two of these stations are in the North Atlantic 

 (off the Azores and south-west of the Canaries), one in the 

 South Atlantic (east of Buenos Ayresj, and three in the 

 North Pacific. 



