NOTES ON RETICULARIAN RHIZOPODA. 267 



but as Dactylopora eruca occurs in considerable variety of 

 form in some of the parcels of material which I have examined 

 it can scarcely be passed over without notice. 



The latest contribution to the debate is a brief note by 

 M. Munier-Chalmas (Joe. cit.), in which Dactylopora m\^ all 

 it allies, including Acicularia, are assigned to a family of 

 calcareous A.lgge, characterised as '' Siphonee verticillee." It 

 may be confessed that the multiform organisms hitherto 

 associated under the term Bactyloporidcs have constituted an 

 anomalous and unsatisfactory group, and any fresh light on 

 their structure and relationship will be welcomed by syste- 

 mafists, whether zoologists or botanists. It is not at all 

 improbable that beings of widely different affinities have 

 been placed together for want of accurate knowledge ; but if 

 this be the case, to hand them in mass to another position 

 will not mend matters greatly. 



It is difficult to see how irregularly constructed shells, 

 like those represented in PL VIII, figs. 3, 4, can have formed 

 portions of a radiate or verticillate organism ; nor have I, 

 after the examination, by sections and otherwise, of a large 

 number of fresh specimens of D. eruca, seen anything 

 corresponding to the structures figured in M. Munier- 

 Chalmas^ paper. Nevertheless, as we have only the author^s 

 preliminary note, criticism would be premature, and we 

 must await the publication of the promised detailed memoir. 

 Meanwhile, it may be observed that the characters of 

 Dactylopora eruca are easily reconciled with those of the 

 rest of the Miliolida, and, so far as revealed by the dead shells, 

 present no anomaly in the position in which the species has 

 been placed by Messrs. Parker and .Jones. 



Of the new Milioline forms alluded to in the foregoing para- 

 graphs, the following -will serve as descriptions, pending the 

 publication of more detailed notice with the necessary figures. 



Hauerina exigua, n. sp. 



Characters. — Test free, thin, discoidal, planospiral; com- 

 posed of a number of convolutions of a narrow, slightly em- 

 bracing, septate tube, but showing no indication of the spiral 

 suture beyond the final circuit. Septa few, about three in each 

 convolution, not marked by any external depression. Aper- 

 ture simple, terminal. Diameter -^ inch (0'5 millim.) or less. 



Found in shallow water in the tropics, notably about the 

 Admiralty Islands and New Guinea. This species also 

 occurs in the Red Sea and elsewhere. 



