THE 
GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 
No. V.—NOVEMBER 1864. 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
sens Fane 
J. On Ivvoxurina Lrassitca (NouMMULITEs Lrassicus, Rupert Jones). 
By Henry B. Brapy, F.L.S. 
[Plate IX.] 
N the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for Oc- 
tober, 1853 (2 ser. vol. xii. p. 272), there appeared a short 
memoir on the Lias at Fretherne (Gloucestershire) by the Rev. 
P. B. Brodie, and to it is appended a Note by Mr. T. Rupert 
Jones relative to certain Foraminifera which had been obtained 
from that formation. One of these Foraminifera, an organism 
of some interest and importance in a paleontological poimt of 
view, was partially described by Professor Jones in the Note 
alluded to, with the provisional name Nummulites Massicus. 
The general form of the shell is similar to that of the Nummu- 
lite, though its average size is somewhat less than even the 
smaller fossil varieties of that genus; and the way in which 
the specimens are crowded together in some portions of the 
strata, as though the rock was almost composed of them, may 
have suggested by its appearance an analogy to the Nummulites 
in the Nummulitic limestone. 
In working over the Foraminifera of the Lias formation, I 
have met with the same organism in various localities and 
under different circumstances. The specimens from Fretherne 
Cliff, which, through the kindness of Professor Jones, I have 
now before me, are too firmly embedded in the compact lime- 
stone to admit of their easy examination except in thin sections 
of the rock itself; but in the Lias Clays of Worcestershire the 
same species exists in considerable abundance, and the character 
of the matrix offers unusual facilities for procuring specimens in 
VOL. I.—NO. V. O 
