266 



7. On Carpenteria and Dujardinia, two genera of a 

 new form of protozoa with attached multilocular 

 Shells filled with Sponge, apparently intermediate 



BETWEEN RhIZOPODA AND PORIFERA. By Dr. J. E. GrAY, 

 F.R.S. ETC. 



Many years ago I observed on some specimens of Cardita varie- 

 gata, which Mr. J. Ritchie, the late Consul of Tripoli, had collected 

 at Marseilles and sent to the British Museum, some specimens of a 

 parasitic shell which resembled a Balanus in shape, but when more 

 carefully examined were evidently not formed in the same manner 

 as the shells of that class of animals ; but as they were not in a good 

 condition, it was not easy to decide from what animal they derived 

 their origin. 



Mr. Cuming some years later, when he transmitted his collection 

 of Cirripedes to Mr. Dawson for his examination, sent with them 

 some shelly bodies attached to the surface of a Porites Coral, and 

 different kinds of shells, as Pec ten and Cardita, which that natu- 

 ralist returned to Mr. Cuming as " not Cirripede , " on which Mr. 

 Cuming brought them to the British Museum, requesting me to 

 examine and describe them. These specimens brought to my mind 

 the shells I had formerly received from Mr. Ritchie, and a casual 

 examination of their form and structure at once showed me that they 

 could not belong to a Cirripede ; and as they presented some cha- 

 racters which were not to be observed in the Mediterranean speci- 

 mens, a careful study of them led me to consider them as nearly 

 allied to the Foraminiferous shell, but differing from any form of 

 them with which I was acquainted, in being permanently attached 

 to marine bodies ; and they were so unlike, both in size and form, to 

 any shells of the kind previously known, that several persons to 

 whom I had expressed this opinion doubted their affinity to them. 

 I therefore laid the specimens aside, in hopes that some other spe- 

 cimens might occur that would more fully elucidate their structure, 

 and show their affinity to other known animals. 



Though most of the naturalists to whom I have shown Mr. Cu- 

 ming's specimens were inclined to regard them as a peculiar form 

 of Cirripede shell, each examination of them tended to strengthen 

 my original opinion, that they were a new form of Foraminifera ; 

 and this was further confirmed when I accidentally discovered that 

 the cells were filled with a fleshy substance, in which bundles of 

 simple sponge-like spicula were imbedded. This induced me to 

 show them to Professor George Busk, and to inquire of him if 

 he had ever seen any coral, or other natural body, to which they 

 could be allied. He stated that he had not, unless they were the 

 shells of a Cirripede ; and on my expressing to him the opinion I 

 had formed of their probable formation and affinity, he stated that 

 it was not impossible that I was right, and that they might be an 

 intermediate form of Rhizopod between a Foraminiferous shell and a 

 Sponge, which is exactly the idea I had formed of their position, 



