^20 PERMIAN FOSSILS. 



of individual cells, a mode of structure still more characteristic of Foraminifcra , 

 D'Orl). {Poli/thcdamia, Ehren.), is very inimical to the classing of Spirilhna with the 

 Foraminifcra. 



Professor Ehrenberg has placed Sj). vimiiara among the Polygastrica, but to this 

 i^roup it appears even more strange than to the Foraminifcra. 



The further examination, however, of recent specimens will probably decide to 

 what family this minute organism really belongs. In the mean time we may direct 

 observation to the fact of the existence of the genus, and probably the same species, 

 not only in the recent state (in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean) and in the 

 super-cretaceous deposits (Bordeaux), but also in the Lias and the Magnesian Limestone. 

 Although so like a Serpula in its form, the fact of its occurring in these various 

 deposits strongly militates against its being an Annelid, and places it amongst such 

 low organisms as Polygastrica or Polythalamia, which preserve generic and even 

 specific characters throughout very many geological epochs. 



Sub-kingdom RADIATA, Cuvier. 



Zoophytes, Auct. 



This portion of the Animal Kingdom is divisible into five classes, viz. : Jnfmoria, 

 Entozoaria, Malactinia, Polyparia, and EcJiinodermata, the last two of which are only 

 known as members of the Permian Fauna.^ 



Class PoLYPARiA (^Les Polypes'^), Lamarck, 1801. 



The latest writers on this group divide it into w^hat may be termed two sub-classes, 

 viz. Nudihraddata and CiliobracJiiata, respectively characterised by the absence or 

 presence of cilia on the tentacles or brachial appendages surrounding the oral aperture 



1 I have adhered throughout this Monograph to the law of priority only as regards the names of species, 

 genera, and families. With respect to higher groups, I have used such names for them as appear to be the 

 most suitable, and I have often altered the value of the groups, on which such names have been imposed: 

 thus Blainville's name Palliohranchiata is more scientifically con-ect than Cuvier's Brachiopoda ; besides, it 

 is expressive of the great distinguishing character of the group to which it belongs. Blainville's name has 

 therefore been preferred, though the value of the group of Molluscs, to which the author of the ' Manuel 

 de Malacologie' applied it, has been raised to the rank it holds in the Cuvierian system. 



" Les Polypes "ont €{€ ainsi nommes, parce que les tentacles qui entourent leur bouche ces font un 

 peu ressembler au poulpe, que les anciens appelaient polypus." — Cuvier, Regne Animal, tome iii, p. 289, 

 1830. 



