1015] on Beauty, Design and Purposs in the Foraminifera 4 



tj 



As MaiuT has picturesquely said, '' Tlie sea, like the snow-cloud, 

 with its flakes in a calm, is always letting fall upon its bed showers 

 of microscopic shells." ^ These are some of the Foraminifera (SI. 10) 

 that may be washed out of any ordinary lump of Upper Chalk. In 

 many localities on a smaller scale the Foraminifera may be seen 

 occupied in this process of World Building. The shore of Dog's 

 Bay, in Connemara (SI. 11), is composed of sands in which no 

 gram of sand has a place. As far as the eye can see, and as deep 

 as man can dig, preserving any measure of self-respect, the littoral 

 deposit consists of pure Foraminifera (SI. 12) extending far above 

 high water-, and far below low water-marks. In a lesser degree the 

 same thing may be seen a little to the north, just south of Emlagh 

 Point (SI. 13), while anyone who has taken the trouble to examine 

 the grit shed in disconcerting qtiantities by a new Mediterranean 

 sponge (SI. 14) must realize what masses of Foraminifera make up 

 the bulk of the shallow water sands in those latitudes. 



Such then shortly is the occurrence of the Foraminifera, which, 

 leaving on one side the doubtful record of Stromhus lapidus by 

 Gesner in 1565,^ which Prof. Rupert Jones identified as a Yaginu- 

 lina,^ make their first appearance in the Micrographia of Hooke in 

 16G5^ as "Figures observed in small sand." He figures one of 

 them (SI. 15), which is clearly the common shore form Rotcdia, 

 leccarii. In 1702 Dr. Plimmer's "Immortal Beadle,"-^ Antony van 

 Leeuwenhoek, in a letter to the Boyal Society,^' figured (SI. 16) the 

 equally common and related form Polystomella striato-pu aetata " from 

 out of the stomach of a shrimp," in which happy hunting-ground 

 Reade recorded the presence of Foraminifera more than 150 years 

 later." There can be no doubt that they play an important part in 

 determining the movements of many of our most important food 

 fishes.'^^ 



Since the day of Leeuwenhoek the Foraminifera have continually 



1 M. F. Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea, 15th ed. p. 322. 

 London, 1874. Of. H. N. Moseley, Notes of a Naturalist on the Challenger, 

 p. 582. London, 1879. " The dead Pelagic animals must fall as a constant 

 rain of food upon the habitation of their deep-sea dependants." 



- C. Gesner, De omni rerum fossilium genere, gemmis, etc. (Last sect, 

 p. 165.) Tiguri, 1565. 



2 T. Rupert Jones, Q. Journ. Geol. Soc, pi. xxxiv. fig. 5, Vaginulina 

 laevigata. 1884. 



^ R. Hooke, Micrographia, p. 80, pi. v. fig. x. London, 1665. 



'" H. G. Plimmer, Bedellus immortalis (Presidential Address), J.R. ]\ricr. 

 Soc, p. 121. 1913. 



" A. van Leeuwenhoek, Sevende verfolg der Brieven, p. 196, pi. opp. p. 191, 

 fig. 7. Delft, 1702. 



' J. B. Reade, Trans. Micr. Soc, vol. ii. pp. 20-24. London, 1849, 



* F, Pearcey, On the Movements and Food of the Herring, Proc Rov. 

 Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. viii. p. 339. 1885, 



