A LIST OF 
IRISH LIASSIC FORAMIN I FE R A, 
BY 
JOSEPH WRIGHT, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.I., 
Hon. Assoc, of the Belfast Nat. Hist, and Phil. Soc., &c ., &c. 
Mr. E. Tate, in his valuable paper on the Liassic fossils of Ireland, pub- 
lished by the Club in 1870, records one species of Foraminifera, Dentalina 
obliqua, from the locality of Ballintoy, County Antrim. This is, I believe, 
the first, and, indeed, only notice we have of fossil Foraminifera having 
been met with in any of our Irish rocks. 
Shortly after this paper appeared, Mr. W. Gray discovered two or 
three other Foraminifera in the same beds. On hearing of these discoveries 
I wsa led carefully to examine these shales at Ballintoy, in the hope of 
being able to add moie kinds to the few already known from that station ; 
and through the kindness of several members of the Club, who supplied 
me liberally with the stone, I am now able to give the names of no less 
than 20 species. 
Excepting one spot on Island Magee, where Lingulin a tenera has been 
met with, the Ballintoy shale is as yet the only Lias known in Ireland in 
which Foraminifera have been found. The shale at this place is singularly 
favourable for yielding these lovely little organisms, for on the stone being 
placed in water, it almost immediately falls down into a fine impalpable 
