REPORT OIST THE FORAMENTFERA. 
V 
communicating with each other by an aperture or foramen (sometimes by more than one) 
in each septum. 
There is little in d’Orbigny’s classification or in his definition of the Order that 
commends itself to the student of the present day, and it is even probable that the term 
“Foraminifera” is more commonly associated with the general perforation of the shell- 
wall, which is a conspicuous feature of one division of the group, than with the character 
it was originally designed to indicate ; nevertheless, it is certain that no other name which 
has been suggested — whether Phizostomes, Polypodes, Trematopliores , Asiphonoides, 
Polythalamia, or Thcdamophora — has found the same acceptance amongst naturalists. 
The term Polythalamia is almost invariably used by Ehrenberg and occasionally by Max 
Schultze, but by others it has been seldom employed except as an alternative ; and it is 
open to the objection that, from an etymological point of view, it is not strictly 
applicable to an assemblage of organisms of which a considerable proportion are 
monothalamous. 
It may be questioned whether our knowledge of the structure and life-history of the 
animals constituting the Order is sufficiently extensive and well established to be used 
as the basis of a name, the number of types concerning which we have any information 
beyond that derived from their dead shells being comparatively small ; but, so far as is 
known, the term “ Rhizopoda Eeticulosa ” or “ Reticularia,” suggested by Dr. Carpenter 
and adopted by Prof. F. E. Schulze and others, is perfectly appropriate. 
At the same time we may remember that it is to d’Orbigny we owe the first recogni- 
tion of the Foraminifera as a distinct zoological group, as well as the researches which 
gave the first impulse to their independent study ; and, in absence of any weighty 
argument to the contrary, rule and custom alike suggest the acceptance of the name 
given by him and already generally adopted. 
Prof. R. Hertwig limits the application of the term Foraminifera to those forms which 
possess a perforated calcareous test ; 1 but, as has been before explained, the designation 
does not refer to general shell-perforation, but to the existence of stoloniferous orifices, 
and in this sense it is equally true of all polythalamous species whether otherwise 
“ perforate ” or “ imperforate/’ Nor is there much violence to d’Orbigny’s original idea 
in accepting the orifice of Lagenci, or analogous types, as a “ foramen,” though in the 
absence of any succession of chambers it serves only for the passage of pseudopodia. On 
these grounds, therefore, either the term “ Foraminifera,” derived from the shell or other 
investment, or “ Reticularia,” suggested by the distinctive character of the sareode-body, is 
a sufficiently accurate appellation for the group, but the former has the right of priority. 
Genera, and Species — Nomenclature. — Much has been written concerning the exist- 
ence or non-existence of true species amongst the lower Protozoa, and especially amongst 
1 Der Organism us der Radiolarien, 1879, p. 142. 
