Note 553 — Chapter XII · THE SPIRAL SHELLS OF THE FORAMINIFERA

In the case of Globigerina, some fourteen species (out of a very much larger number of described forms) were allowed by Brady (in 1884) to be distinct; and this list has been, I believe, rather added to than diminished. But these so-called species depend for the most part on slight differences of degree, differences in the angle of the spiral, in the ratio of magnitude of the segments, or in their area of contact one with another. Moreover with the exception of one or two “dwarf” forms, said to be limited to Arctic and Antarctic waters, there is no principle of geographical distribution to be discerned amongst them. A species found fossil in New Britain turns up in the North Atlantic: a species described from the West Indies is rediscovered at the ice-barrier of the Antarctic.