CHAP, v.] GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 251 



or nine rapidly enlarging inflated chambers coiled symmetrical- 

 ly on a plane ; the shell-wall is extremely thin, perfectly hya- 

 line, and rather closely perforated with large and obvions pores. 

 It is beset with a comparatively small nnmber of very large 

 and long spines. The proximal portion of each spine is formed 

 of three lamince, delicately serrated along their outer edges, and 

 their inner edges united together. The spines, when they come 

 near the point of junction with the shell, are contracted to a nar- 

 row cylindrical neck, which is attached to the shell by a slightly 

 expanded conical base. The distal portion of the spine loses 

 its three divergins: lamini^, and becomes flexible aiul tliread- 

 like. The sarcode is of a rich orange color from included high- 

 ly colored oil-globules. 



On one occasion in the Pacific, when Mr. Murray was out in 

 a boat in a dead calm collecting surface creatures, he took gen- 

 tly up in a spoon a little globular gelatinous mass with a red 

 centre, and transferred it to a tube. This globule gave us our 

 first and last chance of seeing what a pelagic foraminifer really 

 is when in its full beauty. When placed under the microscope, 

 it proved to be a Hasiigenna in a condition wholly diiierent 

 from any thing which we had yet seen. The spines, which were 

 mostly unbroken, owing to its mode of capture, were enormous- 

 ly long, about fifteen times the diameter of the shell in length ; 

 the sarcode, loaded with its yellow oil-cells, was almost all out- 

 side the shell, and beyond the fringe of yellow sarcode the space 

 between the spines to a distance of about twice the diameter of 

 the shell all round was completely filled up with delicate bul- 

 ]{B, like those which we see in some of the Radiolarians, as if 

 the most perfectly transparent portion of the sarcode had been 

 blown out into a delicate froth of bubbles of uniform size. 

 Along the spines fine double threads of transparent sarcode, 

 loaded with minute granules, coursed up one side and down the 

 other; while between the spines independent thread-like pseu- 

 dopodia ran out, some of them perfectly free, and others anasto- 



