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On Foraminifera. 

 By A. Earland. 



{Read June lSt/i, 1897.) 



" There are not more than twenty or twenty-two species of Pelagic 

 Foraminifera, yet so numerous are the individuals of the species that they 

 usually make up over 90 per cent, of the carbonate of lime present in the 

 calcareous oozes of the abysmal regions of the ocean. The individuals 

 belonging to even a dozen of these species far outnumber the individuals 

 belonging to all the other known genera and species of Foraminifera. This is 

 true not only with regard to their abundance and great importance in the 

 now forming deep-sea deposits, but also to their great development in 

 Tertiary and other geological formations." — Murray. " Deep Sea Deposits " : 

 Challenger Report, page 263. 



When exhibiting slides of Foraminifera at the Club, I have 

 frequently been asked by members for directions as to the best 

 method of collecting and preparing foraminiferoas material. I 

 have therefore put together a short paper, in the hope that it 

 may induce some of you to take a practical interest in these 

 beautiful but somewhat neglected forms. As I have had very 

 little practical knowledge of dredging, I shall confine my remarks 

 to the collecting of shore sands and fossil material. The general 

 treatment which I shall describe is necessarily the same as 

 recommended by various writers on the subject, but I have added 

 a few minor details and methods, some of which I believe are 

 new, which I have found advantageous in practical work. 



With the exception of some members of the first family, the 

 Gromidre, the Foraminifera are exclusively marine : and of the 

 hundreds of species known to science, some or other are to be 

 found in every quarter of the world, and at all depths, from 

 tide-pools to several thousand * fathoms. They may be roughly 

 divided into two groups, the Pelagic and non-Pelagic Foraminifera. 

 The first or Pelagic group is a very small one, consisting of only 

 twenty-one species, about 1 per cent, of the total species known, 

 fourteen only of which are commonly found in the pelagic state. 



* At Challenger Station 238, 3,950 fathoms, Miliolina, Reophax, Haplu- 

 phragmium. and Gaudryina, all bottom-living forms, were recorded. 



