236 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



were related to Williamson's Patellina on one hand, and to D'Orbiguy's 

 Orhitolina on tlie other. These varieties we described very briefly in the 

 ' Annals of I^atural History ' for July, 1860 (3rd series, vol. vi.), and we 

 traced a strong line of natural connection between some twelve more or 

 less distinct varieties of what we termed Orhitolina concava, Lamarck, sp. 

 Since then, we have again worked at this subject, with Dr. Carpenter ; 

 and, having somewhat modified our opinion as to the closeness of the pre- 

 sumed relationship of Patellina and Orhitolina {Tinoporus, Carpenter), 

 we do not regard the Patelline as belonging to the same species as the 

 Orbitoline forms — making two species instead of one. But we still are 

 fully convinced that, however spongioid it may appear, the Orhitolina glo- 

 hiilaris is a foraminifer, and a variety of O. concava, Lamarck, sp. The spe- 

 cimens usually found in the chalk and other cretaceous beds are large 

 iudividuals of this very protean species, the typical form of which is con- 

 cavo-convex, or cupuliform ; whilst other varieties have flat, plano-convex, 

 or even biconvex and globular shapes. The concavity of the typical variety 

 becomes, in many of the globular forms, a small cavity, a hole, or even a 

 neat cylindrical perforation. The last feature may be due, perhaps, to the 

 Orhitolina having groAvn around a smooth stem of seaweed. At all events, 

 such perforated specimens are natural, and as abundant in the chalk as 

 those of different conformations. 



In the ' Annals of Natural History ' above referred to, after describing 

 those Orhitolince to which De Montfort's Tinoporus haculatus is referable, 

 we go on to a largish sugar-loaf form from the Upper Chalk of Ciply, Bel- 

 gium, and to a smaller and globular variety in the same deposit, thus : — 

 " In the same deposit are somewhat smaller and globular specimens, in 

 which the granular growth of the septal edges is still greater ; so that con- 

 tinuous, rough, sinuous walls of division are produced, marking out irre- 

 gular polygonal spaces, including one or more cells, the faces of which lie 

 low down below the surface. Essentially similar septal projections con- 

 stitute the limbate feature in Rotalia Beccaria, var. Schroeteriana, and 

 R. rcpanda, Y^v. Carocolla. Similar globular Orhitolince {0. glohularis, 

 Philhps, sp.) are common in other cretaceous deposits. 



" Millepora? glohidaris, Phillips (Geol. Yorksh., pi. 1. f. 12) and Wood- 

 ward (Geol. Norfolk, pi. 4. f. 10-12), Tragos glohidaris, Reuss (Bohm. 

 Kreid., p. 78, pi. 20, f. 5), Coscinopora glohidaris, D'Orb. (Prodrom., ii. 

 p. 281.), and Morris (Catal. Brit. Foss., 2nd edit., p. 27), is our Orhitolina 

 glohidaris. Michelin's Ceriopora Avellana ( Icon. Zooph, p. 208. pi. 

 52. f. 13), from Sarthe, appears to us to be a large specimen of the same 

 variety. Its probably adherent habit and perforated condition are not 

 inimical to this view. 



" In some of the figured specimens of 0. glohidaris, the not unusual 

 liole in the base is indicated. Occasionally individuals are perforated by 

 a more or less irregular tubular cavity. The roundness of the specimens, 

 and (lioir hi>l(>s; and tubular cavities, appear to have suggested to the old 

 Mint-folk of the Valh^v of the Somme, that they might be used for beads ; 

 for such porforalcd Oi bitollnce are {Yequ.ent in the gravel that yields the 

 flint axes " (p}i. :] I. o,!). 



I may add, (h il (he imperforate OrhitolincB occur in the gravels, just as 

 much as the ix-rlorai o. Also that the perforation of the non-drifted speci- 

 inons in the chalk is oflen just as smooth and straight as if artificial; the 

 interior surface is not Avorn, however, but consists of the natural structure 

 of the organism. 



T. RUPEKT Jo^^ES. 



y\l» // 22, 18(52. 



