Mr. W. Clark on the recent Foraminifera. 163 



by the pullulation of the parenchyme and exudation of calcareous 

 matter from the enveloping membrane until the lobe is complete 

 and receives the final stigma of eight new tentacula, the old ones 

 being merged in or become the germs of the new production, 

 and so on, until nature has finally completed her work. We thus 

 see that this animal, when the first germ is cast, increases by 

 pullulation, and at the same time performs the function of re- 

 production by committing its gemmse to fix themselves in their 

 natural habitats. From these circumstances it is probable that 

 the calcareous organisms are solitary, distributed without order, 

 and fixed to rocks, corals, and other hard submarine substances 

 by the pointed stylet which is attached to the posterior terminus 

 of many of the species ; and in fresh specimens of this genus and 

 Marginulina legumen, the fracture of the attaching stylet is very 

 visible by a lens of common power ; but from the tenuity and 

 fragility of the penultimate appendages, these organisms almost 

 always come to us detached, as the substances on which they are 

 naturally fixed are probably rocks and coral reefs ; we therefore 

 can scarcely hope to see them in situ ; and if they ever come into 

 the dredge on fragments, they have from their small volume been 

 passed over without observation, and again cast into the deep. 

 I still however hope to see them in a state of nature : I have 

 directed my dredger to bring in all masses from the coralline 

 zone. 



To return to the animal, a curious question arises : Is it a com- 

 pound being, though a solitary organism ? Does the formation 

 of gemma3 on all the lobes indicate that each is a distinct being, 

 which, instead of opening exteriorly as in many of the other sec- 

 tions of the compound polypi, receives sustentation from the 

 common canal ? can this continuous tube be merely to serve as 

 an oviduct ? is it not also to supply each lobe with water, food, 

 and for depuration ? If these questions are answered in the affir- 

 mative, each segment may be so far a distinct being, as a com- 

 mon connection between the whole mass admits of; on the other 

 hand, does the isochronal development of gemmae in all, the 

 almost isolated lobes, evidence that the animal is a simple one ? 

 If this creature had the segments inclosed in a simple tube, as 

 in the Annelidae, I should answer, it is not a compound animal ; 

 and perhaps even in the first case, those better qualified to judge 

 than myself, will decide it is a simple being, and that the con- 

 temporaneous appearance of gemmae merely shows that each 

 lobe is under a similar stimulus. 



As to the movement of the fluids, I cannot believe that the 

 common canal serves for four distinct functions — for food, the 

 dejections, regeneration, and aeration, without an inconvenient 

 interference of one organ with another ; I am therefore in- 



11* 



