564 DE. CARPENTER'S RESEARCHES OX THE FORAMINIFERA. 



223. With reference to the relationship between Tinoporus and the fossil genus 

 Orbitoides, to which allusion has already been made, I shall here content myself with 

 stating briefly that if the chambers of the equatorial plane of T. Icevis were distinctly 

 differentiated from those of the layers springing from it on either side, it would come 

 to resemble in general conformation the simpler type of Orbitoides known as the 

 0. Mantelli ; and further that if, with this modification, there were also introduced 

 the solid pillar-system of T. baculatus, we should have a corresponding resemblance to 

 0. dispansus*. The metamorphic condition of the shell of the fossil Orbitoides has 

 hitherto prevented me from determining with certainty whether its elementary structure 

 bears most resemblance to the inferior type presented by Tinoporus, or to the more 

 elaborate structure of that of Cycloclypeus, to which type also it seems to be related^. 

 On these points, however, I shall enlarge more fully elsewhere. 



Genus CARPENTERIA. 



224. Of all the Foraminifera collected by Mr. COMING in the Eastern Seas, the last 

 which I have to describe is perhaps the most interesting ; since the type of structure 

 which it presents is not only altogether new, but seem to furnish the connecting link 

 (which had been previously rather suggested than supplied by Thalassicolla and its 

 allies) between SPONGES and FORAMINIFERA, two groups which accord most remarkably 

 in their grade of organization, whilst they differ no less remarkably in plan of structure. 



225. The larger number of the specimens of this type in the collection of Mr. CUMING 

 are attached to the surface of a piece of Forties (coral) ; other specimens, however, are 

 adherent to the shells of Pecten and Cardita ; and the attention of Mr. W. K. PARKER 

 having been directed to these curious organisms, he has met with them on the surface 

 of other bivalves, especially Chama gigas. It is not a little remarkable that the strong 

 external resemblance which they present to the shells of certain sessile Cirripedes should 

 have led not only Mr. CUMING, but other experienced conchologists, to regard them as 

 belonging to that group. Their true nature was first suspected by Dr. J. E. GRAY, who 

 was led by his study of them to consider them as the testaceous envelopes of a Rhizopod 

 intermediate between Sponges and Foraminifera ; the grounds on which he came to this 

 conclusion being, that he found the shell to be multilocular and minutely foraminated 



* I should take this opportunity of stating that in my former description of Orbitoides (Journal of the 

 Geological Society, Feb. 1850) I fell into the same mistake in regard to these pillars, that I did in regard 

 to the analogous structure in Nummulites ; regarding them as having been passages filled with solid calca- 

 reous matter in the process of fossilization, an error which was pointed out to me by Professor 

 WILLIAMSON at the time, and of which I have since come to be fully satisfied by the examination of the 

 recent analogues. 



t The figure given by Professor EHBENBERG, in his remarkable memoir already referred to, " tlber den 

 Griinsand und seine Erlauterung des organischen Lebens," plate iv. fig. 8, and by him designated as the 

 internal cast of OMtoidesjavanicus, will be seen on comparison to present a most remarkable correspondence 

 with figs. 10, 11, 12 of Plate XXIX. (Phil. Trans. 1856) illustrating my description of Cycloclypeus. 



