274 Carpenter and Brady on Foramimfera. 



most remarkable correspondence with, that propounded by Dr. Car- 

 penter and his coadjutors. And their anticipation of important additions 

 to the Arenaceous series has been fully borne out, on the one hand by 

 the discovery of several most remarkable new forms at present existing 

 at great depths in the ocean, which has been made by the dredgings of 

 M. Sars, jun., and those of the "Lightning" Expedition; and on the 

 other by the determination of the real characters of two fossils, one 

 of the Cretaceous, and the other probably of the earlier Tertiary period, 

 which prove to be gigantic examples of the same type. 



The first of these, discovered by Prof. Morris more than twenty 

 years ago in the Upper Greensand near Cambridge, was long supposed 

 to be a Sponge ; but his more recent discovery of two specimens which, 

 had been but little changed by fossilization, led him to suspect their 

 roraminiferal character; and this suspicion has been fully confirmed 

 by the careful examination made of their structure by Dr. Carpenter, 

 to whom he committed the inquiry, and by whom, with his concur- 

 rence, the name Parheria was assigned to the genus. The second, 

 which was obtained by the late Mr. W. K. Loftus from "a hard rock 

 of blue marly limestone" between the N.E. corner of the Persian 

 Gulf and Ispahan, bears so strong a resemblance in its general form 

 and mode of increase to the genus Alveolina, that its Poraminiferal 

 character was from the first recognized by the discoverer; but as all 

 th.e specimens brought by Mr. Loftus had undergone considerable 

 alteration by fossilization, their minute structure, though carefully 

 studied by means of transparent sections, could not in the first instance 

 be satisfactorily made out. When, however, Dr. Carpenter's investiga- 

 tion of Parlceria, with the full advantage of specimens but little changed 

 by fossilization, revealed the very remarkable plan of its structure, the 

 investigation of this type was resumed by Mr, Brady (who assigned to 

 it the name Loftusia), with the new light thence derived : for as trans- 

 parent sections of infiltrated Parkerice furnish a middle term of com- 

 parison between specimens of the same type which retain their original 

 character, and transparent sections of infiltrated Loftusi(B, the last- 

 mentioned can now be interpreted by reference to the preceding ; so 

 that the obscurities which previously hung over their minute structure 

 have been almost entirely dissipated. — The description of the structure 

 of Parlceria in this memoir is by Dr. Carpenter, and that of the structure 

 of Loftusia by Mr. H. B. Brady ; but each has gone over the work of 

 the other, and can testify to its correctness. 



The specimens of Parlceria, which have been collected by Prof. 

 Morris, are spheres varying in diameter from about 3-4ths of an inch 

 to about 1^ inch. But Mr. Henry Woodward has placed in the author's 

 hands a specimen from the Upper Greensand of Ventnor, in the Isle of 

 Wight, which is not less than 2^ inches in diameter. It is interesting 

 to remark that the "nucleus" of a smaller specimen in the cabinet of 

 J. Starkie Gardner, Esq., F.G.S., from the same locality, consists of 

 a considerable number of chambers arranged in a spire, the structure 

 of its concentric spherical layers being exactly the same as in the 

 specimens described. A detailed description, with plates, will shortly 

 be published by Messrs. Carpenter and Brady. 



