On a Badiolarian, &c. By Prof. P. Martin Duncan. 175 



Locality : from the calice of a dead piece of Lophohelia exigua 

 Pourt., in the Caribbean Sea. Depth, 280 fathoms. 



The great slenderness of the meshes, the extreme deUcacy of the 

 projecting spiculte, and the presence on them of from seven to nine 

 equidistant whorls of four small, slightly recurved spines, distinguish 

 this form from the species described by Haeckel under the name of 

 Aulosphsera elegantissima. 



I have named the new species Aulosphsera Pourtalesi. 

 (Description of the illustrations of Aulosphxra Pourtalesi 

 Dune, Plate III.: — 



Fig. 1. The body, magnified 80 diameters. 

 „ 2. A portion, magnified 150 diameters. 

 „ 3. Some whorled spiculse, magnified 300 diameters.) 



II. The second form, with some Kadiolarian aspects, but with 

 the structural elements of a sponge, was taken from the calice of a 

 dead coral which had been dredged from off the floor of the Atlantic, 

 near the coast of Portugal, in very deep water. 



The body is globular, and the oscule is not visible. The surface 

 of the body consists of a layer of continuous siliceous network, with- 

 out visible spiculse or spicular canals, and of a more deeply rooted 

 network in one or two places. Otherwise, there is no structure 

 within the thin film of the outside of the body. The siliceous 

 meshes of the network are semi-transparent, rather flat, and very 

 irregular in their breadth, direction, and in the size of their con- 

 tained or environed spaces. There is no granulation to this 

 skeleton, and there are five kinds of accessory spiculae attached to 

 and arising from it. Firstly, long and more or less cylindro- 

 conical, attenuate, curved spiculse, with curved processes coming off 

 here and there at irregular distances, the curving being from the 

 body as a rule, but not invariably. These large spiculse are not 

 equally cylindrical, and their edges are more or less wavy ; they are 

 thickest at the body, and become more or less slender soon, and 

 terminate rather gradually in a point. They have no visible 

 central canal, and they arise from the junction and prolongation out- 

 wards of several neighbouring parts of the siHceous continuous 

 skeleton. As there are several of these large spiculse thus arising 

 from several parts of the outside of the body, they give a very 

 definite aspect to it. They are embedded in sarcode, and probably 

 had to do with retaining the body in its oozy resting-place. 



Secondly, shorter spiculse arising from one bar of the continuous 

 network, and which have rather long, slightly enlarged at the base, 

 but very attenuate shafts. These shafts give origin to two or more 

 curved processes, some of which are finely granulo- punctate or very 

 minutely spinulate. They stick out boldly from the body. 



Thirdly, long, slender, curved spiculas, with lateral processes or 



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