Rhetic Foraminifera from Somerset. 321 
to this fact, and also to its peculiar form, that it was at first 
thought probable that we were dealing with some ancestral 
form of the recent Aschemonella. When the true nature of 
the labyrinthic test was worked out it was seen that the fossil 
form had characters in common with Nodosinella, a genus 
hitherto known through Dr. Brady’s researches on the 
Carboniferous Foraminifera. The present species, N. wed- 
moriensis, differs materially from the Carboniferous N. cylin- 
drica* in the absence of external evidences of septation and 
in having a more irregular form, sometimes being even bent 
at right angles. 
This species occurs in bed no. 3 of the Rhetic at Wedmore, 
very rare; bed no. 5, very common. 
STacHEIA, Brady, 1876. 
“ Plaques des Rayonnés,” &c., Terquem and Berthelin, 1875. 
Psammosiphon, Vine, 1882. 
General characters (after Brady, emended).—Test adhe- 
rent or free ; composed of numerous segments subdivided in 
their interior, or of an acervuline mass of chamberlets, some- 
times arranged in layers, sometimes confused, or of a thick- 
walled test with acervuline or labyrinthic structure, and with 
the interior subdivided into numerous elongate sinuous cavities 
(the latter characters especially applying to the Rhetic 
representatives of the genus). Apertures simple, but irregu- 
lar, terminal or scattered over the surface of the test. ‘Texture 
subarenaceous, composed of fine sand, sometimes admixed 
with coarser material, and with a calcareous or chitinous 
cement ; imperforate. 
The above genus was proposed by Dr. H. B. Brady in 
1876 to include some adherent subarenaceous Foraminifera 
which he had discovered in the Carboniferous Limestone 
formation of England and Scotland, and which had affinities 
morphologically pertaining to the genera Polytrema, Tino- 
porus, and other perforate types. 
In his ‘Monograph of the Carboniferous and Permian 
Foraminifera’ Dr. Brady lays particular stress upon the fact 
that in the Carboniferous strata Stacheza is always parasitic 
(adherent) ; and such is undoubtedly the case with the 
specimens from that formation. In the Rhetic assemblage 
the tests are more often perfectly free in their mode of growth. 
The flat complanate or frondose form (8, dispansa) is by tar 
* Brady, 1876, Monogr. Carb. and Perm, Foram. (Pal. Soc.) p. 104, 
pl. vii. figs. 4-7. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. xvi. 23 
