98 Messrs. W. K. Parker and T. R. Jones on the 



X. — On the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera. 

 By W. K. Parker, M. Micr. Soc, and T. R. Jones, F.G.S. 



Part III. — The Species enumerated by Von Fichtel and Von Moll. 



The work we have now to treat of lias been already incidentally 

 noticed in our foi'mer papers. It is entitled : — 



" Testacea Microscopica aliaque minuta ex generibus Argo- 

 iiauta et Nautilus ad naturam delineata et descripta a Leopoldo a 

 Fichtel et Jo. Paulo Carolo a Moll. Cum 24 Tabulis seri incisis." 



(" Microscopische und andere kleine Schalthiere aus den 

 Geschlechtern Argonaute und Schiffer, nacli der Natui* gezeich- 

 net und beschrieben von Leopold von Fichtel (Mitglied der 

 Linneischer Gesellschaft zu London, und der Asiatischen zu 

 Calcutta), und Joh. Paul Carl von Moll. Mit 24 Kupfertafeln. 

 4to. Wien, 1803.^') 



In the works of Walker and Montagu previously noticed by 

 us*, we have had to do with, for the most part, dwarfish forms 

 belonging to northern habitats ; and hence many of them have 

 had to be ranked as varieties, of but secondary value zoologically. 

 In the Linngean list of Foraminifera (see our paper in the Ann. 

 Nat. Hist. 3 ser. vol. iii. p. 474, &c.) there are several typical 

 forms, which attracted the attention of the older natm-alists ; 

 but in the work before us we have a fine, though incomplete, 

 series of large, well-grown, specific types, which have been the 

 source of numerous quasi-generic and pseudo-specific distinc- 

 tions in the woi'ks of later authors. These writers have been 

 guided by the false analogy of Molluscan types, which, however, 

 have nothing in common with Rhizopodous shells, except simi- 

 larity of form, or isomorphism ; and it was not until naturalists 

 recognized the really low grade of the Foraminifera, as demon- 

 strated by Dujardin (1835) with respect to several of their forms, 

 that their classification was seen to be dependent upon a wide 

 range of variation within specific limits, such as one again finds 

 only in the lower members of the vegetable kingdom. 



Fichtel and Moll, in their Preface, give a rapid glance at what 

 had been already efi"ected in the working out of the Foraminifera, 

 and express their dissatisfaction with the result. The micro- 

 scopical Nautiloid shells chosen by them for description are not, 

 as a whole, illustrative of any particular fauna; but most of 

 them are Mediterranean forms, either recent, or fossil from de- 

 posits belonging to the Mediterranean area, namely Tuscany 

 and, in a few instances, the Austro-Hungarian district. The 

 remainder were derived from the Red Sea. 



As the specimens selected for illustration represent only one 

 section or " genus," in the nomenclature used by these authors, 

 * Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3. vol. iv. j). .333, &c. 



