R. J. L. Guppy — Foraminifera of Trinidad. 245 



transverse section, the aperture becomes a slit, the animal taking on 

 a compressed form, e.g. Vaginulina. 



The old ideas about the phylogeny of Nodosaria arose from the 

 fact that it was so easy to imagine the unicellular Lagena budding 

 another segment on to itself, which process, if continued, would result 

 in an organism resembling a Nodosaria. Carpenter says (Introd., 

 p. 165) that the relationship of the Nodosaria to the unilocular 

 Lagena " is extremely obvious, many forms of Nodosaria being in 

 all essential particulars LagencB, of which the segments that are 

 successively formed by gemmation have remained in continuity with 

 each other." But I have seldom found a Lagena that I could 

 mistake for the chamber of a Nodosaria, or the broken-off chamber 

 of a Nodosaria which I could mistake for a Lagena. And, indeed, if 

 such were the descent of Nodosaria the existence of the amphicoryne 

 form would be inexplicable. In order to supply an explanation 

 rhizopodists have been compelled to assume an extreme instability 

 of character in Foraminifera which is beyond the fact. It may be 

 added that the aperture of a typical Lagena seldom resembles that of 

 a Polymorphina or Nodosaria. The fine series of figures given by 

 Goes ("Arctic and Scandinavian Foraminifera," pis. ix-xiii) shows 

 the persistency of the polymorphine aperture in forms descended 

 from the polymorphine type. The " Challenger " figures are not 

 excelled by any in fidelity to nature, and they show the same feature- 

 So likewise with the figures given by Flint (" Eecent Foraminifera," 

 Smithsonian Institution, 1899). And Eupert Jones, in the Monthly 

 Microscopical Journal (1876), gives some good figures showing the 

 typical form of the nodosarian aperture to compare with that of 

 Lingulina costata which he figures at pi. cxxix, fig. 11. 



Nodosaria hispida and others. 



I have retained the name of Nodosaria hispida for one of the most 

 abundant Nodosarian s of the oceanic beds of Naparima in Trinidad, 

 and though I was at first doubtful of this determination, it seems 

 confirmed by Flint's fig. 1 of his pi. Ivii and fig. 4 of pi. Ivi. In 

 our N. hispida (PL VIII, Figs. 10, 11) the segments, though spherical 

 internally, and therefore of the same shape as those of the typical 

 N. hispida, are closely connected externally by shell-substance filling 

 up the sutures, one or two only of the latter segments being distinctly 

 separated by a sunken suture or constriction. The shell is thus 

 somewhat fusiform in outline ; it is often straight, but occasionally 

 <}urved or dentaline. The surface is covered with tubercles or 

 spines, and this character is pretty evenly maintained. The aperture 

 is circular, and is situated in a short doubly-lipped neck as in 

 N. abyssoriim and other species. In beds which seem to have been 

 deposited in shallower water the tubercles become bolder and more 

 ■elongate, and this form is called N. conspurcata (Reuss, Tert. Foram., 

 pi. ii, figs. 10-12). Many of the specimens recall N. verrncidosa, 

 Neug., and are not distinguishable by any trustworthy character. 

 iV. riigosa, Orb. (For. Cuba), appears to be a poor example of the 

 «ame species. JV. hirsuta, Orb., Parker, Jones & Brady (Ann. &Mag. 



