1876.] Biology of the 'Valorous' Cruise, 1875. 



213 



(pieces of shell, sand, and other materials) roughly cemented together, 

 apparently without any selective power being exercised in the choice of 

 the materials. From the edge of the disk proceed numerous spoke-like 

 radii, giving the whole animal a stellate appearance ; pseudopodia are 

 extruded from the end of these radii ; and JBessels has shown that in its 

 most perfect state a number of these disks are attached to each other by 

 their radii, so as to form a flat network animal, of which each disk will 

 represent a chamber. This remarkble animal, which I have frequently 

 taken off the British coast, was called by Sandahl Astrorhiza limicola. 

 In the ' Porcupine ' Expedition of 1869 a Ehizopod was dredged between 

 Shetland and Faroe which had a much less regular outline, being sometimes 

 stellate and sometimes cervicorn, and the test was composed entirely of 

 fine sand-grains cemented together ; to this Dr. Carpenter has given the 

 MS. name Astrorhiza arenaria*. At station No. 8 a beautiful form was 

 found which must also be referred to this genus; the chambers are more 

 or less ovoid, not flattened as in the previously known forms, but equally 

 rounded on the sides and above and below ; the spoke-like pseudopodian 

 processes, instead of being all in one plane, as in A. limicola, radiate in 

 all directions. Several specimens occurred in which two chambers were 

 united together, a fresh chamber being developed at the end of one of the 

 radiating processes ; and it is probable that in its most perfect state the 

 animal would consist not only of a series of chambers extended on all 

 sides, as in A. limicola, but of other chambers superimposed on these, so 

 that the whole animal would be of a most complex type. The arenaceous 

 investiture consists of fine sand- grains and sponge-spicules firmly (not 

 loosely as in A. arenaria) cemented together, and is of a ruddy hue, bat 

 not ferruginous. Astrorhiza catenata, n. sp., may be the name to dis- 

 tinguish this animal. Together with several more new arenaceous forms 

 are two calcareous Foraminifera, which though known as fossils are now 

 for the first time met with in a living state ; the one is Cristellaria ohvelata, 

 Eeusst, the other is one of the most beautiful species I have ever seen, and 

 is clearly the same as the fossil described by Karrer in his ' Zur Foramini- 

 ferenfauna in Osterreich,' under the name Orhulina Neojurinensis, KarrerJ. 

 I may add that one of the arenaceous forms is very near to, if not identical 

 with, Glohigerina arenaria, Karrer, described in. the same paper. 



Station No. 12. Lat. 56° 11' iV^., Long. 37° 41' W. ; I AbO fathoms. 

 A bottom of Glohigerina- ooze and pebbles. The Crustacea here met 



* Since the above was written Dr. Carpenter has published a description of this 

 species, and well illustrated its various forms, though he has not given it a specific 

 name (Quart. Journ. Micr. Science, April 1876, p. 221, pi. xix.). It is to be hoped 

 that Dr. Carpenter will before long give us his anxiously looked-for Eeport on the 

 Foraminifera of the ' Porcupine ' Expedition. 



t I am indebted to Mr. H. B. Brady for the identification of this form, and for 

 much kind assistance with respect to the Foraminifera. 



I Sitzb. d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. 1. Abth. April-Heft, Jahrg. 1867, pi. iii. fig. 10. 



