446 Mr. H. J. Carter on Specimens 



be in its way, so as to give the whole the appearance of 

 being frosted with sugar like a bridecake ; hence it is very 

 likely, without the aid of a microscope, to be confounded 

 with Melobesia as well as the white incrustation of some 

 Gorgonias. 



Gypsina vesicularis, Carpenter. 



Several specimens of this species also occur, in the sessile 

 and free forms respectively. The sessile is hemispheroidal 

 and for the most part the largest, while the free one is sphe- 

 roidal and much smaller. Frequently the hemispheroidal 

 form is sunk into the flat surface of a Coralline, subtridentate 

 articulation (Flabellaria opuntia), where it is covered by a 

 thick sarcodic cuticle ; and in this state I have specimens also 

 from the Straits of Carimata,on the west coast of Borneo; while 

 the spheroidal variety, being free, may be found anywhere. 

 The former is well described and illustrated by Dr. Carpenter 

 (Introduction, p. 225 &c, pi. xv. figs. 1-3) ; and I have illus- 

 trated the structure of the latter (' Annals,' 1877, vol. xix. 

 pi. xviii. figs. 18-20). 



Testamcebiformia, new group. 



Char. Amoebiform, testaceous. 



Hitherto almost exclusive attention has been given to the 

 free Foraminifera, whose exquisitely varied forms, although 

 in many instances microscopic, have not unnaturally proved 

 as attractive as the frustules of the Diatomacese ; so that it 

 has become an object of great search among them to find out 

 a new form, although it can hardly be seen by the unassisted 

 eye. This to the specialist is a matter of paramount import- 

 ance, but to the biologist one of insignificance compared with 

 the less attractive and larger forms, which tend to reveal the 

 life-history and connexions of the class generally. 



For some time past I have anticipated the existence of 

 amoebiforrn Foraminifera, differentiated only by the peculi- 

 arity of their respective pseudopodial expansions ; but, of 

 course, this cannot be ascertained except by minute and labo- 

 rious examination of the living so-called " Bathybius" which 

 probably abounds with them after the manner of freshwater 

 rhizopods, forming a similar slime to that which may often be 

 observed over the bottom of stagnant [i.e. still) freshwater pools. 

 I was not, however, prepared to find that some of these ever- 

 changing forms were stereotyped, as it were, by the permanent 

 secretion of a calcareous test, until the Melobesian nodules 

 from the Gulf of Manaar came under my notice, when I ob- 

 served two well-characterized forms to be very abundant in 



