93 Mr. Toulmin Smith on the Ventriculidse 



like the Pennatulida, it fixed itself during pleasure in the soft mud. 

 Among all the thousands of specimens which I have examined, I 

 have never seen one attached to a shell or to any other solid 

 body. Shells are indeed sometimes found growing onto the upper 

 part of the root, where it was of course immoveable, as they do 

 on the body. The most delicate terminations of the roots may 

 be always traced by their impression in the chalk. If the ani- 

 mals were locomotive, it was by aid of the lower radicles that 

 they progressed. 



Occasionally, but it is the rare exception, a small bundle of 

 root fibres is given off from the side of the animal. This is 

 similar in character to the true root, but slighter, and it is 

 merely affixed by apposition of its thick extremity, without any 

 of the encasement. Such instances appear as if some circum- 

 stance rendered an additional support necessary in the particular 

 instance. There are instances among our native zoophytes of 

 upright habit, in which a similar circumstance is not uncommon 

 — much more common than among the Ventriculidse. 



I have one example in which there is no encasing root-sheath. 

 And in that specimen, as if to make up for want of it, the root- 

 lets begin to arise about an inch from the base, being already of 

 considerable strength : they spread out immediately on each side, 

 and so support the body just as a tent is supported by the stay- 

 ing ropes on all sides. I have another example having two com- 

 plete roots, and of course a divided base to the body. Each root 

 is however smaller than usual. These examples only show that 

 the world was under the same laws in the days of the chalk for- 

 mation as it now is : that then, as now, monstrosities would some- 

 times appear, which, however, only themselves serve to show the 

 permanence of Law and Unity, inasmuch as in these very mon- 

 strosities there is always present some compensating phseno- 

 menon which it is interesting and instructive to observe. 



I have already stated that my investigations into the inti- 

 mate structure of the Ventriculidse have rewarded me by the dis- 

 covery of an entirely new kind of animal structure. 



In 1841 Professor Owen read before the Zoological Society a 

 paper* on a remarkable production from the Philippine Islands, 

 of which he says, " in the exquisite beauty and regularity of the 

 texture of the walls of the Cone, the species surpasses any of the 

 allied productions that I have, as yet, seen or found described," 

 and he gives to it the very appropriate name of Euplectella. 

 While the Euplectella is the only object which approaches the 

 Ventriculidse in the beauty and regularity of its texture, the 

 latter far surpass it not only in possessing a much higher degree 



* Zoological Transactions, vol. iii. p. 203 ; and Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 v<A. viii. p. 222. 



