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published last year in two volumes by order of the Governor- 

 General of the Netherlands East India. The islands of Java, 

 Sumatra, and others that are adjacent, possess a remarkable 

 assemblage of large Foraminifera, chiefly of Tertiary age, 

 belonging to several genera. The authors referred to have con- 

 fined their attention mainly to these conspicuous forms, and 

 particularly those belonging to the Family Nummulinida?, which 

 the3 T have described with great care and illustrated by detailed 

 drawings that are models in their clear and faithful representation 

 of the objects described. The Work must rank as one of the 

 most important contributions in the elucidation of this important 

 family of the Foraminifera. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Before I conclude, I must refer to one more important contri- 

 bution to the study of the Foraminifera, which, though not 

 dealing with research in the ordinary use of that term, has 

 placed all original workers under lasting obligations to its author. 

 I refer to Mr. Charles Davies Sherborn's exhaustive work, " An 

 Index to the Genera and Species of the Foraminifera," published 

 by the Smithsonian Institution, in two parts ; Part I. being 

 issued in 1893, and Part II. in 1896. Mr. Sherborn had already 

 secured a world-wide reputation by his " Bibliography of the 

 Foraminifera," brought down to the year 1888, and his *' Index" 

 supplies a ready reference to all species that have been described 

 up to 1889. The work is an inestimable boon to the specialist, 

 not only minimising the labour of wading through a voluminous 

 and scattered literature, but has greatly 'limited the chances of 

 duplication in the description and naming of species. In the 

 same direction I cannot forbear mentioning the valuable aid 

 which naturalists, in general, will in future obtain from the 

 "Record of Geological Literature," which the Geological Society 

 of London has recently undertaken to publish as an annual 

 volume. The scheme followed will practically amount to a 

 Bibliography, in at least the geological field of investigation, and 

 be the means of calling attention to the published results of 

 of workers in the same departments of study that might other- 

 wise be overlooked. 



