278 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



plates of their papers, avoided the eye of the Treasurer for some time. 

 He had, however, always been met with a smile, and so had taken heart 

 of grace. 



He wished to thank Mr. Herbert R. Lilley for the enormous amount 

 of care he had taken in making the drawings which had appeared in the 

 Journal, and to Mr. A. E. Smith who had made the photographs for the 

 lantern slides prepared by Mr. J. A. Lovegrove. Also to Mr. H. F. 

 Angus, who had taken charge of the exhibitions, and supplied Microscopes 

 and superintended the exhibitions of lantern slides. This last expression 

 of gratitude was really very heartfelt, for he fully realized that nothing 

 could be more disconcerting to a lecturer, after announcing a slide of a 

 particular species of Foraminifer, than to be confronted with a slide, say 

 of the Crystal Palace upside-down ; this, in principle, did not uncom- 

 monly happen to lecturers, but it had never happened at the meetings of 

 the Royal Microscopical Society. 



He might say that the study of this branch of Rhizopod life was never 

 ending. He remembered many years ago he had been in the studio of the 

 late Lord Leighton, and he had asked him when a certain picture, then in 

 process of being painted, would be finished. The answer had been " No 

 picture worth painting was ever finished." He had over and over again 

 been reminded of this remark in the course of his present enquiry — it 

 could never be finished. Only last Saturday he and Mr. Earland had 

 said (without any desire to be slangy), " We will now put the lid on 

 this study," and there were already two shells upon a query slide to 

 which they could assign no place at present, and which were awaiting 

 determination. 



He might observe that two years ago they had received from 

 Mr. E. Heath a couple of tubes of dredgings from the Somali coast, 

 containing recent Frondicularia, which they had not yet looked at ; it 

 would be realized from this with what heart-whole ecstasy they had 

 devoted themselves to the shore-sands of Selsey Bill, in which they had 

 now discovered no less than 399 different species. In quoting this 

 number he was reminded of the story of the man who said he had 

 killed 399 wild duck at one shot, and when he was asked why he did not 

 make it 400, had answered, ' ; Shall I imperil my immortal soul for the 

 sake of one miserable duck?" He might make the same answer in 

 regard to their 400th species — they had not found it. 



They were that evening exhibiting the most striking species to be in- 

 cluded in a supplement of the rarer types that had been found in the sands 

 since they had first commenced their researches. As would be readily 

 understood, a great many had been found out of their proper order, 

 and they were now included in this supplement. There were also, 

 besides the Selsey Foraminifera, one or two other slides of exceptional 

 interest to which he would draw attention in due course. When too, the 

 specimens found at Selsey were etiolated or had been damaged, or were in 

 other respects inferior, a point had been made of showing specimens on 

 the screen from other localities which gave a typical representation of 

 the perfect species, so that the necessity of explaining what parts were 

 missing and what parts were imperfectly demonstrated might be avoided. 



The authors called attention to the identity of the fossil Foraminifera 



