Passing from the solitary flask-shaped cell of Lagena, we have, in
another series of forms, a constricted cylinder, or succession of
unduloids; such as are represented in Fig. 89, illustrating certain
species of Nodosaria, Rheophax and Sagrina. In some of these cases,
and certainly in that of the arenaceous genus Rheophax, we have to do
with the ordinary phenomenon of a segmenting or partially segmenting
cylinder. But in others, the structure is not developed out of a
continuous protoplasmic cylinder, but as we can see by examining
the interior of the shell, it has been formed in successive stages,
beginning with a simple unduloid “Lagena,” about whose neck, after its
solidification, another drop of protoplasm accumulated, and in turn
assumed the unduloid, or lagenoid, form. The chains of interconnected
bubbles which {264} Morey and Draper made many years ago of melted
resin are a very similar if not identical phenomenon[311].
――――――――――
There now remain for our consideration, among the Protozoa, the
great oceanic group of the Radiolaria, and the little group of their
freshwater allies, the Heliozoa. In nearly all these forms we have this
specific chemical difference from the Foraminifera, that when they
secrete, as they generally do secrete, a hard skeleton, it is composed
of silica instead of lime. These organisms and the various beautiful
and highly complicated skeletal fabrics which they develop give us
many interesting illustrations of physical phenomena, among which the
manifestations of surface-tension are very prominent. But the chief
phenomena connected with their skeletons we shall deal with in another
place, under the head of spicular concretions.
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