THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 112. APRIL 1857. 



XXI. — Descinption of some Foraminif era /rom the Coast of Nor- 

 way, By W. K. Parker and T. Rupert Jones, P.G.S. 



[With two Plates.] 



Introduction. — The Rhizopoda form an important family of the 

 class Protozoa. The Amoeba is typical of the naked Rhizopods ; 

 the Gromia, of those with a membranous or coriaceous coating ; 

 and those having a calcareous shell constitute the group Fora- 

 minifera. Thalassicolla and its allies * form another related 

 group; and the siliceous Poly cystine are also regarded as mem- 

 bers of the same family. 



The Foraminifera present symmetrical shells, of minute size 

 for the most part, of various patterns, and consisting either of a 

 single chamber or of two or more connected chambers. A jelly- 

 like mass, or *" sarcode,'^ occupies the chambers and their con- 

 necting passages ; and, protruding itself both from the external 

 aperture of the last chamber, and in many cases from the some- 

 times numerous perforations in the shell-walls, extends itself 

 not only over the surface of the shell, but also into radiating 

 contractile threads or pseudopodia, and into gemmule-like masses, 

 which latter become coated over with calcareous matter, and thus 

 form additional segments of the animal f. 



* See Annals, ser. 2, 1851, vol. viii. p. 433 ; and Quart. Joura. Microsc. 

 Science, vol. iv. p. 'J2. Much information relative to the Protozoa is con- 

 tained in the two memoirs here referred to. 



t Among the more important works on Foraminifera, reference may be 

 made to D'Orbigny's ' Foraminiferes fossiles du Bassin Tertiaire de Vienne 

 (Autriche);' Schultze ' Ueber den Organisraus der Poly thalamien,' 1854 ; 

 Carpenter's 'Researches on the Foraminifera,' Phil. Trans. 1856 (two me- 

 moirs). In the ^Annals' for October 1853 is a short notice and some figures 

 of a few Foraminifera from the Chalk. For numerous illustrations of well- 

 preserved fossil Foraminifera, reference may be made to several memoirs 

 by Reuss and others in Haidinger's Abhandl., the Vienna Transact., and 

 the Journal of the Berlin Geological Society. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol'.xw. 18 



