ON THE FORAMINIFERA OF MINERAL VEINS. 381 



Notes on the Foraminifera of Mineral Veins and the adjacent Strata. 

 By Henry B. Bkadt, F.L.S. 



The following " notes " on the Foraminifera obtained by Mr. Charles Moore 

 in his investigations on the palaeontology of mineral veins are necessarily 

 incomplete. When presented there had been neither time nor opportunity 

 for any close comparison of the specimens with the fossil Rhizopoda of 

 periods immediately preceding and succeeding the horizon at which the veins 

 occur. Hitherto the Foraminifera of the Carboniferous epoch have never 

 been seriously studied, partly from the difficiUty of obtaining rocks that can 

 be disintegrated without injury to the fossil microzoa, and partly from the 

 obscurity in which the early types are involved, owing to the obliteration of 

 many of their structural peculiarities. 



Under these circumstances it is not surprising that a large proportion of 

 the specimens in the collection represent forms not previously described. 

 Excepting those belonging to the genus Involutina, the Foraminifera are 

 remarkable for their want of well-defined characters — zoological and physical 

 causes having alike contributed to obscure the peculiarities they may have 

 had when living. 



The Nodosarince are represented by examples of two forms, namely, a 

 single specimen identical in contour with Nodosaria radicula, Linne, sp., 

 having well-defined subglobular chambers, and two or three shells having the 

 general charactei's of DentaJlna pauperata, D'Orbigny, — a cylindrical, slightly 

 arcuate, and tapering test, with little or no constriction at the septa. The 

 roughened and possibly partially sandy investment which all these specimens 

 present, throws some difRculty in the way of placing them amongst the No- 

 dosarince ; but inasmuch as the doubtfully arenaceous appearance may be due 

 to the subcrystalliue structure of the matrix on the one surface or the mine- 

 ral infiltration of the chambers on the other, whilst in all morphological re- 

 lations their characters are completely Nodosarian, separation from the group 

 seems scarcely justifiable. 



The Textularice in the collection are very irregular in their growth, and 

 by no means constantly biserial. They resemble some of the varieties of 

 T. sagittida, Defrance, more than any other described species ; but it may be 

 necessary, or at least convenient, to assign a distinctive name to this primi- 

 tive and variable form. 



One or two obscure shells, regarded originally as Tinoporus Icevis, P. & J., 

 are more probably a new species of Involutina, having an analogous acervu- 

 line mode of growth. 



Some other minute and very obscure organisms in Mr. Moore's collection 

 appear to be young examples of Fusidina, a genus of Carboniferous Forami- 

 nifera well known in its mature condition. 



A number of bodies of larger size, shaped like spheres drawn out at two 

 opposite portions of their periphery, and distinctly arenaceous in their struc- 

 ture, have been regarded as joints of a gigantic Lituola, pending material for 

 more complete examination. The produced ends appear to have been slender 

 stoloniferous tubes ; and a number of the chambers may have been joined 

 together, forming a mouiliform test of some length*. 



But the most interesting portion of the collection consists of the series of 

 specimens of the genus Involutina, which place the relations of that type in 



* Since the examination of the specimens from mineral veins, the author has learnt 

 that the same fossil has been discovered in the Carboniferous Limestone of Northum- 

 berland by Sir W. C. Trevelyan. The anticipations above expressed are found in the 

 main to be correct, but it has been thought necessary to separate the organism from Litvolti 

 proper, and the new generic term Carteria has been employed for it. 



