TRANSACTIONS. 
On the MiLioLiTiD^ (AgathisUgues, D'Orbigny) of the East 
Indian Seas. Part I. Miliola. By W. K. Parker^ 
Esq., Mem. Micr. Soc. 
(Read January 13th, 1858.) 
The naturalist who would make the external character of 
the Foraminifera or Rhizopoda of the same value as in the 
Cephalopods and Univalves will find himself in a great 
dilemma as he proceeds : his method may seem to be the 
true one_, if he only has to describe the specimens of a few 
gatherings from distant places ; but if he goes on with his 
•investigations his perplexity will increase, and he must invent 
new names by the hundred to keep pace with the fresh forms 
presented to him. If the foliar organs of our most familiar 
plants could grow detached from their common axes, botany 
would present just such a harvest to the species-maker as the 
Foraminifera have done. How many species, not to say 
genera, would the ivy, the abele-tree, or the bitter-sweet 
yield? Now I think that I do not go out of the way of true 
inductive observation by making this comparison; for, al- 
though these polythalamous shells are not ranked as plants, 
yet they are the very simplest of animals, and have scarcely 
any differentiation of tissues. They are merely sarcode and 
shell-matter, and neither of these appears to have been 
formed by the intervention of true cells ; whereas the phano- 
gamous plants just mentioned are, as every one knows, highly 
complex in their structure. 
The living creature then that forms these exquisite rhizo- 
podous shells is a mere point of gelatinous substance (called 
^'^ sarcode ; it 
" Shape has none 
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb." 
What wonder then that their defensive structures should vary 
exceedingly in shape and in size ? 
Indeed, those who have honestly and earnestly set them- 
selves to the task of distinguishing species, have found that 
they are dealing with an " unbound Proteus " in a thousand 
shapes, who must be distilled to his native form, — the true 
morphological idea of each species being only attainable by a 
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