336 Prof. G. Seguenza on Ellipsoidina, 
limited in number are the localities explored in comparison 
with those still to be worked out, we must believe that pale- 
ontology is still to be enriched by countless new species, and 
within a few years it must record in its annals many fresh 
genera and novel facts concerning them. 
“* Our own island of Sicily, which has been but little searched 
by the paleontologist, has been still less studied in respect to 
its Foraminifera; in fact nothing is known concerning them, 
except the few species mentioned by Sig. Hoffmann and re- 
peated by Calcara, and those recently discovered by Prof. O. 
Costa, of which the names alone are given in his ‘ Paleonto- 
logia del Regno di Napoli.’ Yet the number of their calca- 
reous shells occurring in the Tertiary beds of Sicily is very 
great, and the variety of species, recognizable by their fossil 
remains, considerable. 
“In my paleontological researches in the district of Messina, | 
IT have frequently met with enormous Foraminiferous deposits ; 
and from them I have already obtained the fossil shells of 
about three hundred species, which in the course of their suc- 
cessive discovery have confirmed my belief in the existence of 
Miocene strata on the two opposite sides of the Peloritan 
chain*. ‘Their general characters and similarity to species 
already known yield a strong support, an undeniable evi- 
dence, and a clear argument in favour of my views of the 
geological structure of the neighbourhood of Messina. ‘The 
object of the present memoir is to describe a new generic 
form of these minute shells, which I have observed in the 
Miocene marls of the locality alluded to. 
“‘ Amongst the numerous beautiful and striking forms I have 
noticed there is one which has the external characters of an 
Oolina, perfectly oval or ellipsoidal in shape, and terminating 
in a tube not showing on its external surface, even under the 
microscope, any trace of sutural constriction. From these 
characters I believed it at first to be a Monostegian Forami- 
nifer, in reality an Oolina, very much resembling, if not iden- 
tical with, the O. ellipsoides of Costa. On breaking the shell, 
however, the reality proved to be in complete opposition to the 
ideas I had formed from its external features. It was seen to 
consist of a series of chambers, similar in shape but decreasing 
in size, each succeeding chamber completely enveloping the 
previous one. The chambers, however, are not concentri- | 
cally arranged, but each is fixed by the inferior extremity to 
the base of that which contains it, whilst the extremity of the 
tube is fixed where that of the exterior chamber commences. 
* Vide “Del terreno Miocenico osservato sui versanti della Catena 
Peloritana ” (Eco Peloritano, Anno y, serie 2*, fase. 5). 
