252 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



tion roller and a rack and pinion, so that all the mounts may be suc- 

 cessively brought under the microscope. The specimens thus arranged 

 are inclosed in a box having a glass top, through which the objective 

 of a microscope projects. 1 



In the following catalogue the classification of Mr. H. B. Brady has 

 been followed, as presented in " The report on the Foraminifera col- 

 lected by H. M. S. Challenger? and his definitions of families and 

 genera have been appropriated bodily. The analytical table is also 

 compiled chiefly from the above-mentioned report. The descriptions 

 ol species have been prepared after study of the reserve series as well 

 as of the typical specimens reproduced in the illustrations. 



The localities given are only those from which specimens have been 

 taken in selecting the series exhibited and in reserve, and do not 

 profess to represent the distribution of the species. 



A supplementary table gives the latitude, longitude, and depth of 

 water of the stations referred to in the catalogue. 



THE FORAMINIFERA. 



The Foraminifera are minute aquatic, mostly marine, animals, having 

 semifluid bodies, composed of granular protoplasm, inclosed in shells 

 or "tests" either secreted by the animal or built up of available foreign 

 material, such as mud, sand, sponge spicules, or dead shells. In zoologi- 

 cal classification they belong to the Bhizopod group of the Protozoa, 

 and are distinguished from other members of the group by the single 

 character of the reticulated form assumed by their pseudopodia when 

 extended. 



These minute animals are interesting objects of study, geologically 

 and biologically as well as esthetically. As objects of beauty they 

 arrest the attention of even the casual observer by the delicacy of 

 their structure as well as the symmetry and variety of their forms. 

 Geologically they are of interest because they are among the most 

 ancient and abundant of fossils and also the most efficient of rock 

 builders. Biologically they are instructive examples of the powers and 

 possibilities of an individualized bit of protoplasm — "a little particle 

 of apparently homogeneous jelly, changing itself into a greater variety 

 of forms than the fabled Proteus, laying hold of its food without mem- 

 bers, swallowing it without a mouth, digesting it without a stomach, 

 appropriating its nutritious material without absorbent vessels or a 

 circulating system, moving from place to place without muscles, feeling 

 (if it has any power to do so) without nerves, propagating itself without 

 genital apparatus, and not only this, but forming shelly coverings of a 



1 This apparatus was devised by the writer and put on exhibition in the year 1890. 

 It has been subjected to the very severe test of years of use by the general public, 

 children as well as adults, to the number of hundreds each day, and this with ouly 

 the occasional presence of an attendant in the room. See Report U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 1896, p. 96.) 



