Bibliography. 453 



To cPOrbigny we are indebted for the first scientific classification of 

 these bodies ;* for a beautiful series of plaster models of themt which 

 have made their curious forms familiar to naturalists; and for several 

 important memoirs, not only upon the living species,^ but upon the 

 peculiar forms belonging to the chalk and other strata.§ 



The work whose title stands at the head of this notice, is the last 

 contribution made by this indefatigable author to his favorite depart- 

 ment of science. It is a beautiful quarto volume, with more than 300 

 pages of text, and 21 elegant and well filled plates. The text is given 

 in both the German and French languages, and the execution of the 

 whole volume is worthy of the imperial auspices under which it was 



published. 



The Chevalier de Hauer having made an immense collection of the 

 Foraminifera from the tertiary deposits of Austria, prevailed upon M. 

 (TOrbigny to undertake their scientific study, and the Emperor of 

 Austria liberally defrayed the expense of the publication of the work, 

 to the preparation of which the author devoted not less than two years. 



This work is not one of merely local interest. No one familiar with 

 the subject, who looks upon its plates, can fail to be struck with the re- 

 semblance which many of the forms bear to the fossils which are accu- 

 mulated in such immense quantity in the tertiary beds beneath Charles- 

 ton, S. C., || and which are scarcely less abundant in the tertiary of 



Virginia. 

 This work on the Austrian forms will be indispensable to all who 



would study the species belonging to deposits of the same age in other 

 localities. A very valuable portion of the work is an introduction giv- 

 ing a complete exposition of the present views of the author concerning 

 the classification of the Foraminifera, to illustrate which, figures of 

 every genus now known are given. Of high interest also are the au- 

 thor's general paleontological remarks. Commencing with the carbonif- 

 erous epoch in which the first Foraminifers occur under the form of the 

 genus Fusulina,fl a detailed statement is given of the successive addi- 

 tions of genera and species during the different epochs, up to the pres- 



It appears from the data hitherto obtained, that the number 

 of genera and species in the different periods was as follows : 



Carboniferous, 1 genus, 1 spec.es, 



ent time 



Jurassic, , 5 genera, 20 



Cretaceous, 34 " 280 



Tertiary 56 " 450 



Recentf' 68 « 1000 « . 



It appears too, that certain genera are peculiar to certain formations, 

 although some of those which accompanied them may also occur in 



* Annates des Sciences Naturelles, Janvier, J826. '.. 



t Complete sets are for sale at Rue Louis-le-Grand, JNo. t>, l an*. 



I Furaminifen »de Cuba et des Antilles, 1839. 



$ Foraminifera de la Craie blanche, Mem. de la Soc. Choi, de France. IS» 

 KSl«id« for an Artesian well at Ft. ****** « Charlton har- 

 bo !. WreSed^the Poiythalamia beds which were first .ducted in boring an 

 Artesian VeH in the city of Charleston. An abundant supply of the marls crowded 

 with biimiful microscope forms in a perfect ^^J^^S^T 

 us for examination, bv Capt. A. H. Bowman, of the V- B. Jin-ineew. ... 



1 For a notice of American Fusulina limestones, see this Journal, vol. n, ». Ser, 



p. 293. 



y 



