THE JOURNAL 
OF 
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
On some New and Interesting Foraminifera from the Funafuti 
Atoll, Ellice Islands. By Freprrick Capmany, A.L.S., 
F.R.MS. 
[Read 21st December, 1899.] * 
(Puates 1-4.) 
THE expeditions dispatched by the Royal Society of London 
from New South Wales under the direction of Professcr W. J. 
Sollas, and of Professor T. Edgeworth David, for the purpose of 
making a boring in a typical atoll in the Pacific Ocean, have 
furnished zoologists and others with some very interesting 
material for detailed study. In the examination of this material 
and that of other coral-reefs, one cannot fail to be impressed by 
the importance of organisms other than corals in forming the 
great mass of the reef. 
Among the groups of organisms which are as active as coral, 
and even more so, in building up the enormous banks, mounds, 
and reefs of limestone in coral areas, we may mention the cal- 
careous alge Halimeda and Lithothamnion as prominent rock- 
formers ; the first-named often growing in the greatest profusion 
to the exclusion of almost all else, especially in the lagoon, whilst 
the latter grows in branching masses which entangle smaller 
organisms and loose sand, or encrust corals and millepores, 
often at a considerable depth. A laminated alga allied to Litho- 
thamnion is also found growing in nodular form in alternate 
concentric layers with the foraminifer Polytrema; and the 
condition favourable for this peculiar intergrowth seems to be a 
sandy area influenced by strong currents. At the surface on 
the Funafuti Atoll, these nodular intergrowths were found only 
on the seaward face of the reef. 
[ * This paper has been unavoidably delayed in publication.—Ep.] 
LINN. JOURN.—ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXVIII. 1 
