FORAMINIFERA FROM THE NORTH ATLANTIC AND AECTIC OCEANS. 
odd 
out, to some extent, their distribution in other seas (see Table VII.), and their occurrence 
in the fossil state ; thus providing some materials towards a correct knowledge of their 
distribution in Time and Space. 
With this in view, we have endeavoured to simplify the nomenclature of the Forami- 
nifera by adhering as strictly as possible to the plan of study laid down by Williamson* * * § 
and Carpenter f, and followed by ourselves in former memoirs $. 
Using the classification and nomenclature § proposed in the ‘ Introduction to the Study 
of the Foraminifera,’ we have, under generic and specific heads, a limited number of 
Fora mi ni f eral groups, possessing among themselves very different features, whilst the 
members of each group are formed on one simple plan, almost infinitely modified in its 
details, and often producing imitations of members of the other groups, just as mimetic 
resemblances occur in Mollusca, and in other Classes of the Animal and Vegetable 
Kingdoms. 
By recognizing these mimetic resemblances among distinct varieties and species, and 
laying but little stress on non-essential features, we seem to be able to grasp the multi- 
tudinous varieties and subvarieties, modified, disguised, and transitional, with something 
like satisfactory results ; and they fall into natural recognizable groups, having more or 
less fixed habits and places of growth, instead of escaping from us as an illimitable cloud 
of differing though related individuals, almost unknown in reality, though nearly each 
has been endowed by writers with a separate binomial title. 
In determining the species and varieties of the Foraminifera under notice, we have, as 
far as possible, used already published materials ; and in comparing our specimens with 
figured forms, we have been satisfied when a near approach to identity is shown ; minute 
differences are ignored, such differences not being of essential value. 
There have been many naturalists who have helped on our knowledge of these Mi- 
crozoa. D’Orbigny first classified them sufficiently well to enable himself and others 
to group their acquired material in an orderly, though artificial manner ; and by his care 
an enormous number of forms, specific and- varietal, from different parts of the earth, 
recent and fossil, have been arranged in good lithograph plates, serving as a museum 
for reference. Since D’Orbigny, few have collected such great stores of Foraminifera, 
and illustrated them so abundantly, as Professor Dr. A. E. Reuss ; providing naturalists 
with, as it were, available collections of hundreds of forms. Professor Reuss’s latest 
observations have led him in a great degree to concur with (and in some cases to antici- 
pate, we believe) the classification propounded in the ‘ Introduction to the Study of the 
* On the Recent Foraminifera of Great Britain; by Professor W. C.Williamson, F.E.S. (Eay Society) 4to. 
1858. 
t Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera ; -by W. B. -Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S., assisted by W. K. 
Parker, Esq., and T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S. (Ray Society) 4to. 1862. 
+ Papers on the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera, in the Annals of Natural History, from 1859 to 1863. 
§ The concise and -well-digested remarks on classification and nomenclature in Dr. Woodward’s ‘ Manual of 
Mollusca ’ are in great part applicable to Rhizopodal studies. 
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