14 



KHIZOPODA. 



root-like filaments as feet, they are named Rhizopods 

 — that is, root-footed animals. They are, in truth, 

 marine forms of the Amoeba we have just been de- 

 scribing, from which, however, they difier in being 





Fig. 5.— RHizoPODS. 



able to construct for themselves shelly coverings, 

 perforated by innumerable little orifices or foramina, 

 through which their root-like filaments {Pseudo- 

 fodia)* are protruded ; from this circumstance, the 

 shells and the creatures inhabiting them have been 

 named Foraminifera.t Minute as these shells are, 

 invisible for the most part to ordinary vision, the 

 microscope reveals many of them to be structures 

 of exquisite beauty, emulating in their shape the 



* False feet. ;|/ei;577s, pseudes, fahe ; ttovs, pons, a foot. 

 t Foramen, an orifice ; fero, I carry. 



