dredged up from the Gulf of Manaar. 451 



Hah. Marine, in cavities of the Melobesian nodules, which 

 have been excavated by lithodomous sponges. 



Loc. Gulf of Manaar. 



Obs. In composition, colour, and position, together with the 

 micropointed surface and its connexion with the crooked, 

 knotted, filamentous, stolonic tubulation, this organism re- 

 sembles Ceratestina globular -is more than anything else that I 

 know of; but there is no visible appearance of punctures 

 in the wall. The knotted form of the stolonic tubulation 

 reminds one of the successive moniliform chambers in the so- 

 called Placopsiline Lituolida — equally so in form, although 

 not in consistence, of the creeping tubulation of the Sapro- 

 legnieaj and Myxomycetic fungi, to which in nature the Fora- 

 minifera very nearly approach. In consistence, however, they 

 are more like the penetrating developments of the kerataceous 

 sponges, but in structure totally different ; for the fibre in the 

 latter is not only infinitely branched, but, in all instances that 

 I am aware of, cactiform — that is, puckered up into little mon- 

 ticules on the surface, which is thus rendered most uneven. 



One cannot help here associating the amber colour of 

 Ceratestina with the bright brown, or red cinnamon colour of 

 most of the Lituolida, which appears to be thus modified by 

 admixture of the chitine in the latter with the white mineral 

 substance of which the test is otherwise composed. 



Subsessile Species of Foraminifera. 



Genus Kotalia, D'Orbigny. 



The genus Rotalia, sometimes parasitic, but, according 

 to Williamson, " usually free," is under the former con- 

 dition characterized by being flat on one side, by which it 

 adheres to the object on which it may be fixed, and convex 

 on the other ; but although many of the latter may be easily 

 detached without injury, still there is one in particular, viz. 

 Rotalia spiculotesta (' Annals, 7 1877, vol. xx. p. 470, pi. xvi. 

 figs. 1-3), which is so thin and delicate, and so firmly fixed 

 to the object on which it may be growing, that it may be 

 fairly inferred that it remains in this position for the whole 

 period of its existence. As I have found several specimens 

 of this species on the Melobesian nodules of the Gulf of 

 Manaar, and hitherto have only had one to describe from, 

 viz. that to which I have alluded (op. et loc. cit.), although 

 Mr. H. B. Brady has obtained three from the Red Sea, 

 whereby he has been able to ascertain that the composition 

 of the spiculiform bodies in the test is calcareous, still it is 

 desirable that I should state, by way of confirmation, what 



