2S4 RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE 



those of plants, are for the most part built up 

 around a central axis, or they show tendencies to 

 spiral modes of growth. 



It is this composite sort of life which is con- 

 nected with the main geological function of the 

 Foraminifer. While active sensation, appetite, and 

 enjoyment pervade the pseudopods and external 

 sarcode of the mass, the hard skeleton common to 

 the whole is growing within ; and in this way the 

 calcareous matter is gradually removed from the 

 sea-water, and built up in solid reefs, or in piles 

 of loose foraminiferal shells. Thus it is the aggre- 

 gative or common life, alike in Foraminifers as in 

 Corals, that tends most powerfully to the accumu- 

 lation of calcareous matter ; and those creatures 

 whose life is of this complex character are best 

 suited to be world-builders, since the result of 

 their growth is not merely a cemetery of their 

 osseous remains, but a huge communistic edifice, 

 to which multitudes of lives have contributed, and 

 in which successive generations take up their abode 

 on the remains of their ancestors. This process, 

 so potent in the progress of the earth's geological 

 history, began, as far as we know, with Eozoon. 



Whether, then, in questioning our proto-fora- 



