Notes and Comments, 87 



R.M.S., and Mr. J. E. Barnard, F.R.M.S. Mr. Heron-Allen 

 said that in the year 1826 Alcide d'Orbigny published among 

 the innumerable, and for many years unidentified, nomina nuda 

 that compose his ' Tableau Methodique de la Classe Cephalo- 

 podes' the name Rotalia duhia. This species was left untouched 

 by Parker & Jones in their remarkable series of articles ' On 

 the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera.' The French natura- 

 list, G. Berthelin, was the first investigator to unearth and make 

 use of the ' Planches inedites ' which had been partly completed 

 by d'Orbigny for the illustration of his great work upon the 

 Foraminifera, a work that was never published. Working 

 with Parker and Jones's paper, Berthelin made for his own use 

 careful tracings of 246 of A. d'Orbigny's unfinished outline- 

 sketches. These sketches were never elaborated by d' Orbigny 

 upon the ' Planches,' which are still preserved in the Laboratoire 

 de Paleontologie under the care of Prof. Marcellin Boule ; 

 among them was found the sketch of Rotalia diihia. On the 

 death of Berthelin the tracings passed into the poessssion of 

 Prof. Carlo Fornasini of Bologna, who reproduced them all in 

 a valuable series of papers published between the years i8g8 

 and 1908. Fornasini's opinion was that the organism depicted 

 by d'Orbigny was doubtfully of Rhizopodal nature, and that it 

 was probably referable to the Ostracoda. The speaker said 

 that he had examined the d'Orbigny type-specimens in Paris 

 in 1914, and had noted that Rotdlia dubia was a worn and 

 unidentified organism, resembling an Ostracod. 



ROTALIA DUBIA. 



There the matter rested until Mr. Arthur Earland and the 

 speaker, while examining the material brought by Dr. J. J. 

 Simpson from the Kerimba Archipelago (Portuguese East 

 Africa) in 1915, discovered one or two undoubted Foraminifera 

 of an unknown type, which resembled Berthelin's tracing. 

 Prof. Boule kindly sent the d'Orbigny type-specimen to London, 

 and the Rhizopodal nature of Rotalia duhia was established. 

 It is not a Rotalia, and it must await determination until more 

 specimens are obtained. It has been named provisionally 

 Pegedia papillata. There were two or three forms of the 

 organism, but only one perfect specimen of the d'Orbigny 

 type ; and it was undesirable to risk destruction by cutting a 

 section of it. In these circumstances Mr. Barnard was ap- 

 proached and he experimented with the object of ascertaining 

 the interior structure of the shell by means of the X-rays. His 

 results were extraordinarily promising, and led to further 

 experiments. 



SKIAGRAPHS OF FORAMINIFERA. 



The speaker showed on the screen photographs of the 

 common and dense Foraminifer Massilina secans (d'Orb.), 



1918 Mar. 1. 



