794 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



—which was placed on the table beside the Microscope under which the 

 diatom was being shown ; and if this figure was compared with the 

 diatom itself, it would be seen how great an advance had been made in 

 the perfection of objectives since that time, when it was described as 

 being covered with a sort of mulberry elevation. They knew, of course, 

 that specimens of the same species varied very much, and they must 

 take this into consideration, but he thought the greater part of the 

 difference observed was due to the improvement of the objective. He 

 wished to thank Mr. Thomas specially for giving them this beautiful 

 specimen. 



Mr. E. Heron-Allen — in reference to the exhibition on the table that 

 evening of Slides of Foraminifera from the collection of the late Mr. 

 Win. Kitchen Parker — said he had hurried down from the Council 

 Meeting in order to inspect this collection under the impression that he 

 would see something of particular interest, but what he saw reminded 

 him of a story of the American who, on being shown a small skull said 

 to be that of Oliver Cromwell, remarked that he had always understood 

 that Oliver Cromwell had a very large head, whereupon the exhibitor 

 explained that this was " the skull of Oliver Cromwell when he was a 

 little boy." He thought that these slides must have been from the col- 

 lection of W. Kitchen Parker when he was a little boy. When he re- 

 membered the multitude of papers on the Foraminifera published by the 

 great triumvirate of Brady, Jones, and Parker — or Jones, Brady, and 

 Parker, or Parker, Jones, and Brady — he thought he should have seen 

 something quite exceptional in the way of species and specimens. The 

 slides exhibited on the table gave him the impression that at the com- 

 mencement of his career as a student of the Foraminifera Mr. Parker 

 must have bought a new sponge, and the result of his examination of 

 the sand obtained from it was before them that evening. 



Mr. Earland said that the chief interest of the slides lay in their 

 having once been in the collection of the late W. Kitchen Parker, for 

 the specimens themselves had no particular value, and the mounts were 

 very crude. He noticed, however, that one of the slides of Bognor 

 shore-sand contained a typical British specimen of Nubecvlaria lucvfuga 

 Defrance. Now the slide was to all appearances more than fifty years 

 old, while the species in question was not recorded in Britain until 

 1879. If Parker had noticed his specimen, the record would have been 

 anticipated by many years. Parker's reputation as a rhizopodist was 

 almost entirely based on his association with Rupert Jones and H. B. 

 Brady, in conjunction with whom he published many papers of great 

 value, especially from the point of view of systematic nomenclature. 

 The exact share which Parker contributed to the partnership was 

 unknown to him, but it was probably quite secondary to the contri- 

 butions of the other two authors. Although Parker had a high 

 reputation as a zoologist and comparative anatomist, he had, so far 

 as he was aware, published only a single independent paper on the 

 Foraminifera. 



The Chairman thanked the last two speakers for their remarks with 

 respect to these slides, which it was quite possible might have been put 

 up by Dr. Parker at the commencement of his career ; or else that they 



