THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



137 



were extremely abundant through a great part 

 of the mud of his eighth region (which extends 

 from 600 to 1380 feet in depth), and for the most 

 part appeared to be species very distinct from those 

 in the higher zones. Kepresentatives of the genera 

 Nodosaria, Textularia, Rotalia, Operculina, Cristel- 

 laria, Biloculina, Quinqueloculina, and Globigerina, 

 were among the number. The difference here noticed 

 between these deep-sea Foraminifers and the well- 

 known existing species from the higher or marginal 

 zone is curious ; it would have been desirable that 

 the comparison had also been made with the series 

 from the Italian tertiary beds. 



The Mediterranean Sponges, as seen through 

 the clear waters of that sea, spreading over broad 

 surfaces from the margin downwards, in all their 

 varied colours and delicate structure, suggest, as 

 they did to the older naturalists, that they are the 

 mosses and lichens of the sea. This system of re- 

 presentation extends beyond these cryptogamic 

 forms, and the analogies between flowering plants 

 and some of those compound animals we have next 

 to notice, forms the subject of one of Ed. Forbes's 

 most original and happiest speculations. 



The Sertularians are composite beings, built up 

 by individuals, each of which concurs towards a 

 common living structure ; and the offices of these 

 several individuals, and of their parts, correspond 

 with those which produce the composite structure of 

 a plant : each polyp answers to a leaf, and performs 



