588 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
The foregoing characters apply to typical examples of the species, but irregular or 
anomalous specimens are not uncommon. In some of the latter the chambers are mis- 
shapen, in others the stoloniferous tubes are twisted or of uneven diameter, or at times 
abortive. Fragments have also been found of which the original shell appears to have 
consisted of reticulating tubes without distinct chambers. The species is probably very 
nearly related to the Cretaceous forms already referred to, possibly identical with them ; 
but it is difficult to speak with any degree of certainty in the absence of good representa- 
tive specimens. Even in the recent condition approximately complete shells are very 
rarely met with, whilst those obtained from fossiliferous deposits are almost invariably 
little more than disjointed segments. 
Ramulina globulifera has been observed at three Stations in the North Atlantic, 
namely — off Gomera, Canaries, 620 fathoms ; off Sombrero Island, West Indies, 450 
fathoms ; and off Bermuda, 435 fathoms ; and at one point in the North Pacific, off 
the Philippines, 95 fathoms. The remaining six localities are in the South Pacific, — off the 
west coast of New Zealand, 145 and 275 fathoms; near the Fiji Islands, 210 and 255 
fathoms; and amongst the islands south of New Guinea, 129 and 155 fathoms. Frag- 
ments apparently belonging to this or some allied variety of Ramulina, have been found on 
the Atlantic shores of Ireland, by Mr. F. W. Millett. 
Family VIII. GLOBIGERINID^J. 
The Family Globigerinida:, as now proposed, corresponds in the main with the 
Sub-family Globigeriige of Carpenter, Parker, and Jones ; but for reasons which will be 
stated on a subsequent page, the genus Carpenteria , which has hitherto been included in 
the group, is omitted, and the genera Hastigerina and Candeina, the characters of 
which were imperfectly understood when the “ Introduction ” was written, occupy its 
place in the series. Although the Family, as a whole, does not present that unbroken 
succession of minute modifications which has been remarked in some other groups of 
similar extent, the salient features of the more important types are sufficiently alike to 
indicate close natural affinity, and their relationship is further attested by the similarity 
of the conditions under which they live. 
The morphological characters of the Family are too varied to be capable of brief 
definition, and they can only be stated in broad and general terms. The test is always 
of the most simple construction, composed of few chambers, usually much inflated, or at 
least convex externally, and spirally arranged ; the walls are distinctly perforated, and 
there is no trace of supplementary skeleton or interseptal canals. The aperture assumes 
very diverse forms, not only in the different genera, but sometimes in the different species 
of the same genus. In the typical Globigerine shell each individual chamber opens into a 
deep central depression or cavity on the inferior side ; but in the nautiloid varieties of 
