336 Prof. G. Seguenza on Ellipsoidina, 



limited in numlber are the localities explored in comparison 

 with those still to be worked out, we must believe that palse- 

 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 palgeontologist, 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 paleeontological researches in the district of Messina, 

 I have frequently met with enormous Foraminiferous deposits ; 

 and from them I have abeady 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- 

 dencCj 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 

 foim 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 

 OoUna^ 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 0. 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 v. serie 2". fasc. 5). 



