REPORT ON THE FORAMINIFERA. 
247 
Technitella legumen, like many other monothalamous and monostomous Foraminifera 
varies exceedingly in external contour ; indeed it appears capable of assuming any 
shape, from a long pointed oval to a curved cylinder with rounded ends. The aperture 
too varies considerably in different specimens. The broken test (fig. 9) corresponds 
pretty closely to the characters given by Mr. Norman in the original description, in 
which it is stated that “ the mouth-opening is in the form of a contracted tube,” and 
pursuing the general similitude of the test to a legume, the neck is said to “ represent 
about the same proportional length and width to the cylinder as the basal portion of 
the pea-pod, where it passes into the calyx, does to the pod itself.” Since the 
publication of the paper referred to, a considerable number of specimens of Technitella 
legumen have come under my notice, and I have found no uniformity in these particulars 
that would lead me to regard them as furnishing specific characters of any value. 
Eecently my friend Mr. Robertson of Glasgow has dredged the species in some 
abundance in the living condition on the west coast of Scotland ; and almost the whole 
of his specimens have a superficial coating of sand or mud. One of them is represented 
in its natural state in PL XXV. fig. 11. The sandy coat is sufficiently coherent to 
resist ordinary washing, but it can be disintegrated and removed without difficulty, 
and the characteristic spicular test appears underneath. Whether this is a mere local 
peculiarity, depending on some exceptional condition of the sea-bottom, or the normal 
habit of the animal when living, cannot at present be determined ; but it is an interesting 
fact in connection with the tendency exhibited by some other Foraminifera, notably 
Truncatulina lobatula, to protect themselves under certain circumstances with a covering 
of sand. That in all such cases the material is selected and incorporated by the sarcode 
enveloping the test, there can, I think, be no doubt. 
The distribution of the species, so far as known, is as follows. South of Bukken, 
Norway, 150 to 200 fathoms, and thirty miles west of Valentia, Ireland, 112 fathoms 
(Norman) ; off Cumbrae, 60 to 65 fathoms (Robertson) ; at two Challenger Stations in the 
South Atlantic — south of Pernambuco, 350 fathoms, and east of Buenos Ayres, 1900 
fathoms; off Christmas Harbour, Kerguelen Islands, 120 fathoms; off Sydney, 
Australia, 410 fathoms; north of the Society Islands, 2350 fathoms; and lastly, one or 
two broken specimens in soundings off the Fiji Islands. 
Technitella raphanus, n. sp. (PI. XXV. figs. 13, 14). 
Test free, elongate, subcylindrical, straight or somewhat curved ; broad near the 
superior extremity and tapering to a point at the inferior. Aperture a simple round 
orifice formed by the gradual constriction of the superior end of the test. Length, |fh 
inch (3 mm.). 
