The longitudinal wrinkling of the flask-shaped bodies of our Lagenae,
and of the more or less cylindrical cells of many other Foraminifera
(Fig. 87), is in complete accord with the above theoretical
considerations; but nevertheless, we soon find that our result is not
a general one, but is defined by certain limiting conditions, and is
accordingly subject to what are, at first sight, important exceptions.
For instance, when we turn to the narrow neck of the Lagena we see at
once that our theory no longer holds; for {262} the wrinkling which
was invariably longitudinal in the body of the cell is as invariably
transverse in the narrow neck. The reason for the difference is not
far to seek. The conditions in the neck are very different from
those in the expanded portion of the cell: the main difference being
that the thickness of the wall is no longer insignificant, but is of
considerable magnitude as compared with the diameter, or circumference,
of the neck. We must accordingly take it into account in considering
the _bending moments_ at any point in this region of the shell-wall.
And it is at once obvious that, in any portion of the narrow neck,
_flexure_ of a wall in a transverse direction will be very difficult,
while flexure in a longitudinal direction will be comparatively easy;
just as, in the case of a long narrow strip of iron, we may easily
bend it into folds running transversely to its long axis, but not the
other way. The manner in which our little Lagena-shell tends to fold
or wrinkle, longitudinally in its wider part, and transversely or
annularly in its narrow neck, is thus completely and easily explained.
An identical phenomenon is apt to occur in the little flask-shaped
gonangia, or reproductive capsules, of some of the hydroid zoophytes.
In the annexed drawings of these gonangia in two species of
Campanularia, we see that in one case the little vesicle {263} has
the flask-shaped or unduloid configuration of a Lagena; and here the
walls of the flask are longitudinally fluted, just after the manner we
have witnessed in the latter genus. But in the other Campanularian the
vesicles are long, narrow and tubular, and here a transverse folding
or pleating takes the place of the longitudinally fluted pattern. And
the very form of the folds or pleats is enough to suggest that we are
not dealing here with a simple phenomenon of surface-tension, but with
a condition in which surface-tension and _stiffness_ are both present,
and play their parts in the resultant form.
[Illustration: Fig. 89. Various Foraminifera (after Brady), _a_,
_Nodosaria simplex_; _b_, _N. pygmaea_; _c_, _N. costulata_; _e_, _N.
hispida_; _f_, _N. elata_; _d_, _Rheophax_ (_Lituola_) _distans_; _g_,
_Sagrina virgata_.]
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