378 Transactions of the Society, 



discoverer to Dr. Ctirpenter, C,B., F.E.S., &c., wlio lent them to 

 me, during an examination I was undertaking into the nature of 

 nummuline structure. One specimen consisted of several thin 

 sections, which had been mounted in Canada balsam before de- 

 composition of the sarcode of the Foraminifer had occurred. The 

 sections, mostly made at right angles to the surface, exposed a 

 succession of chambers, bounded by well-developed nummuline 

 walls, whose perforations are remarkably large. Some chambers 

 are filled with Canada balsam, and others contain the sarcodic 

 substances usually seen in living and in recently dead Foraminifera. 

 A few chambers contain a small quantity of sarcode and much 

 balsam ; and it would appear that the fortunate roughness of the 

 manipulation has scattered some of the contents around the sections, 

 where they are preserved. 



One chamber, of considerable size, bounded by a wall of num- 

 muline structure, has a small quantity of sarcode near the foramina 

 on one side, and the rest of the space is occupied by a very remark- 

 ably shaped organism, which is environed and filled with Canada 

 balsam (Plate X., Fig. 1). This organism is y^^j inch broad and 

 y- inch in total length, and consists of a broad sac which is bulged 

 inferiorly where free, and is rather concave in its outline superiorly, 

 where it gives origin to three narrow, long, and exceedingly 

 delicate tubes resembling stolons. These enlarge at their further 

 ends and expand into bag-shaped chambers which are much 

 smaller than the parent sac. Again, each of these chambers has 

 tubules issuing in different directions: some enlarge into other 

 bags ; others enter a large sac on the side of the main body and 

 above it ; and one or two are continued through the nummuhne 

 wall, and reach another foraminiferal chamber, terminating in a 

 curiously shaped enlargement with openings in it. This combina- 

 tion of large sacs, delicate stolon-like tubes, ending in small 

 chambers, communicating through the wall of the Foraminifer 

 with another sac, has a very thin and transparent external 

 membrane which is hirsute with minute spinules. 



Sacs, tubes, and chambers are hollow, and there are no internal 

 structures. The whole organism is suspended freely in the 

 chamber of the Foraminifer, by the stolon which passes through 

 the nummuline wall, and there is considerable space between the 

 large sac and the walls. 



The resemblance of the shape of the organism to the casts 

 of Gliona from chalk fossils described by Professor John Morris is 

 striking. 



Under the use of the spot lens, the tissue of the sacs and stolon- 

 like tubes becomes opalescent, and the spinules are rendered very 

 evident. 



A higher magnifying power than that at first used — about 



