Mr. H. J. Carter on the Fossil Foraminifera of Scinde. 451 



columns (a 3, C3), across which linear interspaces, lastly, the 

 stolon-processes pass that unite the chambers (e-t). The stellate 

 lines, from their transparency, are frequently not seen ; but when 

 opake and white, they give the surface and horizontal section a 

 star-like appearance ; their apparent absence, therefore, does not 

 constitute a specific difference. I have never seen any of the 

 stolon-processes passing through the opake columns ; neither 

 have I ever been able to detect a point of yellow ochre in the 

 peripheral extremities of the columns in the infiltrated specimens, 

 indicative of their having been pierced by a vertical canal, al- 

 though I have had infiltrated specimens in which this must have 

 been the case, had there been one. 



Here it is necessary for me to correct an error in my former 

 communication on this subject (Ann. Nat. Hist. /. c. p. 173), 

 where I have stated that the " opake columns " are " columns 

 of cells." In Orbitolites Mantelli there are no opake columns, 

 as will presently be seen, but there are columns of compressed 

 chambers, as in Orbitoides dispansa ; and the only way in which 

 I can account for my misstatement is, that the resemblances 

 between Orbitoides dispansa and Orbitolites Mantelli, on super- 

 ficial examination, are so great that I must have been describing 

 from a specimen of the latter in my hand when I committed this 

 error. The best distinguishing character, indeed, between these 

 two fossils, for field purposes, is the presence of the opake co- 

 lumns in Orbitoides dispansa and their absence in Orbitolites 

 Mantelli. 



Spherules or propagative agents. — As in Operculina and Num- 

 mulites, so in Orbitoides dispansa, these bodies are frequently 

 observed throughout the cavities and canals of the test (PI. XVII. 

 fig. 1 o), equally filling the central as well as the peripheral 

 chambers, and equally traversing the vertical tubuli as well aa 

 the intercommunicating canals between the chambers ; so that 

 in this way they readily find a passage from even the most in- 

 ternal cavities of the organism to the exterior. In their deve- 

 lopment, judging from the full-grown specimens, the spherules 

 may grow considerably beyond the size which they have at their 

 exit from the parent, or very little exceed it, but are almost, if 

 not always, followed by the development of a much larger cham- 

 ber, viz. the " circumambient " one, as before stated, previous to 

 the development of the rows of small chambers. They vary in 

 size from 1 -2000th of an inch downwards. 



Orbitoides asterifera, n. sp. (PI. XVII. fig. 3). — The only dif- 

 ference between this form and that of 0. dispansa is that it is 

 much smaller, has an asteroid elevation on the surface consisting 

 of six or eight rays extending from the centre towards the 

 circumference, where they bifurcate; the surface-ends of the 



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