ON THE GENUS POLYMORPHINA. 245 
pressed. "Terminal segments developing numerous irregular expansions and tubular out 
growths. 
No variety of Polymorphina has been made the subject of so much discussion as that 
comprising the fistulose modifications of the type; and to none pertains the same amount 
of zoological interest. As early as 1791 cervicorn specimens had attracted the attention 
of the Abbé Soldani, and three entire folio plates of the “ Testaceographia ” are devoted 
to their elucidation. De Montfort, in 1808, gave what we suppose to be a rough copy of 
one of Soldani's figures; but if it be so, it must have been drawn in entire ignorance of 
the characters of the genus to which it belonged, and therefore much importance cannot 
be attached to either his figure or description. The first figures we find serviceable for 
purposes of nomenclature are those appended to Zborzewski's * Observations Microsco- 
piques sur quelques fossiles rares de Podolie et de Volhynie," drawn from two specimens 
found in the Tertiary beds of the districts indieated. Although the author has so far mis- 
understood the nature of their peculiarities as to constitute two new genera for them, there 
seems no reason why one of his specific names should not take the precedence which, in 
point of time, is due to it. Of the two we prefer * D’ Orbigni "*—the other, “Humboldtii,” 
having been since used for a distinct variety of Polymorphina. 
Somewhat later other modifications were discovered by Professor Reuss in the Chalk 
formation of Bohemia; and M. D'Orbigny followed with specimens from the Miocene of 
the Vienna Basin, representing the simplest type of the genus (Polymorphina gibba), with 
four or five radiating tubular projections at the anterior extremity of the shell, surround- 
ing or overgrowing the orifice. Shortly afterwards Dr. Alois Alth f, continuing Prof. 
-Reuss's observations on specimens from the same geological habitat, came to the conclu- 
sion that the physiological differences indicated by the irregular shelly outgrowths were 
of generic importance; and he accordingly separated the tubulose forms from the rest of 
the Polymorphine, under the new generic term Aulostomella. No subsequent writer has 
participated in this view; and more recent investigation has shown clearly that the wild- 
growing forms possess no character sufficiently uniform or constant to render even specific 
definition desirable, except on the plea of convenience. 
It is quite open to question whether, after all, the association of examples, having as 
their only common character the production of a terminal chamber of a certain sort, is 
the best method of recognizing a physiological peculiarity. Every separate variety of the 
genus has, or may have, its “fistulose ” condition, and Continental Rhizopodists have been 
satisfied to give a new name to each of these as it was discovered,—a system open to great 
objection. One alternative is to place them together under a single head; another, 
to distribute them as subvarieties under the names of the symmetrical types in which 
they have their origin. The former of these two courses has certain advantages for 
* <Orbignii” is manifestly more correct, and we have taken this amount of liberty with the original spelling in 
adopting the specific term ; we do not say “Von Humboldtii.” 
T Haidingers Naturw. Abhandl. vol. iii. p. 263. 
+ Prof. Reuss appears recently to have adopted the latter of these alternatives. In his * Wieliezka" memoir, 
P- 72, he places Globulina tubulosa, D'Orb., under Polymorphina gibba, with the note ** Monstrüse Aulostomellenform,” 
a diagnosis which agrees with the table at page 246. 
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