Geological Society. 583 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



February 7th, 1900.— W. Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following communication was read: — 



' Foraminifera from an Upper Cambrian Horizon in the Malverns.' 

 By Frederick Chapman, Esq., A.L.S., F.R.M.S. 



The foraminifera described in this paper were found in a shaly 

 limestone which Prof. Groom obtained ' from the debris of a 

 small ridge composed of black shales, with intercalated basalts, 

 which forms a spur on the north-west side of Chase End Hill. 

 The rock belongs to the well-known and widely-spread zone of 

 Sphcerophthalmus, Peltura, and Ctenopyge, which in Britain forms 

 the upper half of the Dolgelly Beds or Upper Lingula-Fl&gs.' The 

 specimens have been sliced, and have yielded a few forms other than 

 Spirillina; sections of echinoderm-spines, ostracod-tests, and occa- 

 sionally sponge-spicules (?) are also to be seen in the slides. The 

 tests of the foraminifera are infilled with a crystalline substance. 



The following species are mentioned : — Lagena Icevis, Montagu, 

 L. apiculata, Reuss, L. ovum, Ehrenberg, Nodosaria pygmcea (?) 

 Terquem, i\ r . abnormis (?) Reuss, Marginula soluta (?) Reuss, 

 Cristellaria acutauricularis (?) (Fichtel & Moll) ; and a new species 

 of Spirillina is described. The Spirillina are in a good state of 

 preservation ; and the valves of mollusca, cut through in section, 

 are sometimes seen to be quite filled with the tests of this genus. 



A record is given of some of the earliest known foraminifera, 

 including the somewhat doubtful forms described by Cayeux from 

 pre-Cambrian rocks in Britanny, those by Ehrenberg from the so- 

 called ' Silurian Clay ' near St. Petersburg, by "W. D. & G. F. 

 Matthew from the rocks bearing the Protolenus-f&ima, in New 

 Brunswick, by Keeping from the shales above the Bala Limestone 

 near Welshpool, by Blake from the Llandovery of Cwm Symlog, 

 by Brady from the Woolhope Limestone of the Malverns, and by 

 Terquem from the Upper Silurian rocks of Indiana. The Author 

 has also frequently met with Lagena in the Wenlock Limestone of 

 Shropshire. 



