158 Mr. E. Parfitt on a Species of Arenaceous Foraminifer (?) 



of my view. This is all I desire to say upon the subject at 

 present. Although I now firmly believe that the valvular 

 orifice in the Cystidea, the larger lateral aperture of the Blas- 

 toidea, and the so-called proboscis of the palaBOzoiC Crinoids 

 are all oro-anal in function, yet I shall not maintain that view 

 obstinately against good reasons shown to the contrary. 



XVII. — On a Sj)eci'es of Arenaceous Foraminifer (?) from 

 the Carhoniferous Limestone of Devonshire. By Edwaed 

 Parfitt, Esq. 



[Plate XI. figs. 9-12.] 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, 



I beg to enclose you a rough sketch of what I had at first 

 regarded as a species of CUona new to science ; but on a more 

 extended acquaintance with the specimens, and comparing 

 them with the beautiful figures of the arenaceous Foraminifera 

 described by Dr. Carpenter in the Royal Society's ' Trans- 

 actions,' vol. clix. part 2, plates 72-76, I am now more in- 

 clined to regard it as a sessile arenaceous Foraminifer. 

 This species or form I met with on a block of carboniferous 

 limestone brought from the quarry of Westleigh, near Tiverton, 

 Devonshire. The specimen covered a space of eight or ten 

 inches, and was so consolidated with the rock that, had it not 

 been for the weathered sui-face, I should have passed it by. 



The weathered surface has just the appearance of what we 

 might expect to see in a free fossil CUona ; the resupinate sto- 

 lons, variously branched and attached, quite resemble those of 

 the recent forms of this genus (fig. 9). On having a small spe- 

 cimen cut and polished, I was much surprised to find that all 

 the interstices between the stolons were filled with sand, 

 charged more or less with a ferruginous tint ; and on applying 

 nitric acid to the surface for some time, this ate away the cal- 

 careous portions and left the interstices standing up promi- 

 nently between the calcareous disks. The sand, as now ex- 

 posed, appears to be quartz ; and, generally speaking, the 

 grains are as shaii^ly angular as if it had just been broken up 

 on purpose for this animal, and used by it directly. On com- 

 paring the part which had been submitted to the acid with 

 the figures in the Royal Society's ' Transactions,' pi. 76, there 

 is a very strong family likeness at once apparent. In my 

 specimen the labyrinthiform spaces are filled with calcareous 

 matter of the same colour as, and apparently very little different 

 from, the limestone ; at the same time each of the spaces of the 



