THE LOWEE FORMS OP LIFE. 



43 



more than the sarcodous animal we have demonstrated as Amoeba 

 (Fig. 67, p. 46). In by far the largest number of shells, viz., those 

 which are hyaline, their true character is also shown by the pseudo- 

 podia being projected through minute orifices or perforations in the 

 shell, as seen in Fig. 64, and hence the name of Foraminifera. In 

 the porcelanous group there are no foramina, and the pseudopodia 

 are emitted from the mouth of the shell, as seen in Fig. 65. 



Such being the texture, let us now look at the forms which they 

 assume, I have selected as typical examples twenty-one of these 

 shells for illustration (Figs. 43-63). These will be admitted, I 

 think, to be very beautiful objects. They remind us, in fact, of 

 works which, as specimens of art, are endeared to the memory of 

 the classic scholar. We have in these bottles (Figs. 44, 45) the origin 

 surely of the Roman lachrymatory, in which the tears of departed 

 friends were supposed to be kept. They are clear as glass, looking 

 as like bottles in fact as they can do, as is shown in Fig. 66, in 

 which the animal is seen through the transparent shell, while Fig. 46 

 is hyaline everywhere except the central white parts of the hexagonal 

 reticulations on the surface, which are porcelanous. Now look 

 at Fig. 49. Who had the first start, the pea in making its pod, or 

 the Amoeba in making its shell ? 



Fig. 64. 

 Fig. 64:.Discorbina globularis (after Schultze). 



Fig. 65. 

 Fig. 65. Miliola tenera (after Schultze). 



We will not now argue this abstruse question, although, of course, 

 the Darwinians will give it in favour of the pea ; for, irresistibly as 

 it were, the imagination rushes to the old cornu ammonis which, in 

 very olden times, was thought to be like the ram's horns which 

 ornamented the statues of Jupiter (Fig. 50). Go on a little, 

 and when you see Fig. 51 you must, whether you will or no, think of 

 the fairy nautilus gliding with graceful beauty over the surface of 



