THE LOWER FORMS OF LIFE. 45 



communicate among themselves (Fig. 67, p. 46). In others, this 

 communication is by no means so perfect, and we have seen an 

 instance above (Fig. 57, p. 42) where there is none at all. It is 

 observed that in those species of Foraminifera in which the shell is 

 perforated, the sarcode being able to obtain nourishment by its 

 pseudopodia, the segments are more independent, as it were, than 

 in those species in which the pseudopodia are projected from the 

 mouth alone (Fig. 62, p. 42, and Fig. 65, p. 43) ; while in others 

 the foramina in the shells are the orifices of a series of canals 

 which ramify through all the chambers, bringing the innermost 

 whorl into direct communication with the external world. 



But the organisation of some of the Foraminifera is still more 

 complicated. Without going minutely into this most interesting 

 subject, I will give an example, the details of which may be easily 

 followed : Take a shilling into your hand, and place it with the 

 Queen's head (God bless her !) upwards. Now imagine that the 

 letters were carried all the way round the rim, and that instead of 

 the Queen's head the upper surface of the shilling were filled up 

 with circles of letters, each letter opposed to the space between the 

 letter of the previous circles (cabbage-planting fashion). These 

 circles would, of course, ultimately end in a single letter in the 

 centre of the shilling. Now imagine further that if each letter in 

 the outside circles were to send forth a canal towards the centre of the 

 shilling, this would strike the space between the letters of the next 

 circle in the middle. Well, let this canal be supposed to divide at 

 this point, and to send forth branches directly to the two letters 

 on each side. Suppose further, that the edge of the shilling had 

 circular openings, about one-third of its depth from the top, in the 

 sulci of the milling on the edge of the shilling, and that they were 

 the openings of canals which went directly to those between each 

 letter in the first circle on the top of the coin. 



Now, instead of a shilling with letters, imagine a circular shell 

 having its shape and milled edge varying from l-30th to 7-10ths of 

 an inch in diameter, and each letter a lump of sarcode connected 

 with each of the others in the way I have pointed out by canals 

 containing sarcode, and that through each hole in the milled edge of 

 the shell there issued a series of pseudopodia, also formed of sarcode, 

 like those in Fig. 64 (p. 43), and you have an exact representation 

 of a compound animal, or series of connected Protozoons ; the whole 

 being nourished by the prey caught by the pseudopodia coming out 

 of the foramina in the rim, which animal, living in its compound 

 shell, is known as one of the genus OrUtolites (Fig. 67, p. 46). 



This singular organism is developed by a series of buddings 

 from a " central disc," as Carpenter calls it, which is beautifully 



