ORDERS OF REUZOPODS— MONERA. 19 



posed of the shells of these animals. As this rock is employed for building, 

 he remarks that it is no exaggeration to say that Paris, as well as the towns 

 and villages of some of the surrounding departments, are almost built up 

 of Foraniinifera. 



The limestones of early Tertiary age of Southern Europe and Asia 

 and of Northern Africa are largely constituted of Nummulites (nummidus, a 

 small coin), — foraminiferous shells resembling money in shape, and ranging 

 from the size of a pin-head to that of a dollar. This 'Nummulitic Lime- 

 stone ' attains a thickness of several thousand feet, and contributes to form 

 those great mountain chains, the Pyrenees, Alps, Apennines, Carpathians, 

 and the Himalayas, often including their snow-clad peaks. It extends 

 through the Mediterranean basin, Asia Minor, and Persia, into India. In 

 Egypt, it furnished building-stone for the great Pyramids. 



The chalk of Europe, a soft limestone of an earlier time than the 

 former, is also chiefly composed of the shells and their decomposed remains 

 of Foraminifera. The so-called green-sands, like those of our neighboring 

 States, New Jersey and Delaware, of the same and other periods, from the 

 earliest to the latest times, have been largely due to Foraminifera. Prof. 

 Bailey has further shown that a similar material to the green-sand is now 

 in process of formation in the Gulf of Mexico, through the same agency. 



The fossil-bearing rocks of earliest time present illustrations of the 

 same character. Limestones of the Carboniferous age have been largely 

 due to foraminiferous shells, and one kind has been specially named 

 'Fusulina Limestone', from the abundance of shells it contains of the 

 foraminiferous genus Fusulina. 



The group of organic beings designated as I?Eoiiera (Gr. moneres, 

 simple) was first definitely characterized by Prof. Haeckel, who describes 

 it in his Monograph as follows : 



Organisms without organs, which in the perfectly developed condition 

 consist of a freely movable, naked body, composed of a completely struc- 

 tureless and homogeneous sarcode (protoplasm). Never differentiating 

 nuclei within the homogeneous protoplasm. Motion occurs through con- 

 tractions of the homogeneous body- substance, and through extension of 

 variable processes (pseudopods), which either remain simple, or branch and 

 anastomose Nourishment occurs in various ways, mostly after the manner 

 of Rhizopods Reproduction takes place only in an asexual manner, 



