LOFTUSIA FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA, 73 
though often somewhat flexuous dark line. The “tertiary” in- 
growths, or pillars, are composed of comparatively large particles, 
though these scarcely ever attain a size of one thousandth of an inch. 
Though rough in outline when examined under a high power, they 
are well defined and compact-looking at their proximal extremities ; 
where they are involved in the spongy growth from the roof, they 
become less definite and occasionally appear almost to vanish before 
uniting with the lamina. 
The expansions of the pillars against the roof, or rafters as they 
have been called, are much deeper than wide, and though definite 
and clearly seen in tangential sections of the lamina, are generally 
not distinguishable from the spongy ingrowth in transverse or lon- 
gitudinal sections. Both the rafters and cancellated ingrowth appear 
to differ much in texture from, and to be much more transparent 
than, the columns. The secondary ingrowths, or septa, are of 
similar material, and in many cases are scarcely to be distinguished 
but for the expansion of the pillars upon them. 
The separation of the primary lamina from the subsidiary 
cancellated growth, said to be common in L. persica, and repre- 
sented in plate lxxix. fig. 2 (op. et.), has not been observed in any 
of these specimens, a circumstance probably in connexion with 
their smaller size and less complex structure. Many specimens show 
externally a layer of variable thickness of acervuline or irregular 
erowth. This appears to occur chiefly in those examples which 
may be supposed to have attained maturity, and to have formed a 
stronger protecting crust round the delicate fabric of the test. Fig. 2 
(Pl. VI.) represents this feature, which does not appear to be found 
in LZ. persica. A layer of chambers without any definite external 
lamina appears to be formed, and these chambers communicate out- 
ward, with still less regular openings, and degenerate eventually into 
a cancellated or spongy mass of calcareous particles, which is gene- 
rally limited by a firmer and darker outer layer. Smaller Forami- 
nifera are occasionally included in the substance of the test of the 
Loftusia, though much larger than any of the granular fragments 
usually composing it. 
In the matrix of some of the specimens are a few examples of a 
form which, though seen only in transparent section, from its pre- 
cise resemblance in size and shape to that figured by Mr. Brady as 
Olimacammeria antiqua* in his memoir on Carboniferous and Per- 
mian Foraminifera, I have no hesitation in referring to this species. 
Mr. Brady says of the genus Loftusia that it would “ seem to find 
a natural place at the head of the Arenaceous series of Foraminifera, 
a position corresponding to Alveo/ina in the Porcellanous group, and 
Fusulina among the Vitreous forms.” It is indeed remarkable to 
find the Paleozoic forerunner of the more gigantic Tertiary Loftusia 
agreeing with it so precisely, even in many of the more minute points 
of structure. The case is analogous to that of the discovery by Mr. 
Brady in Carboniferous rocks of Nummulina pristina, which in the 
* Monogr. Palxontographical Society, vol. xxx. p. 68, plate ii, fig, 8. 
