38 OF THE RHIZOPODA IN GENERAL. 



central globular primordial chamber in which all Foraminifera seem normally to commence, 

 partly surrounded by a closely applied tubular part, not separated from the preceding by any 

 distinct septum (fig. 4, b). In a short time, the young animals put forth their pseudopodia 

 from the aperture of the shell, and crawled about upon the surface of the glass. The shell 

 was sufficiently transparent to enable the contained sarcode-body to be examined with high 

 magnifying powers ; and it was seen to consist throughout of the ordinary protoplasmic 

 substance, without any vestige either of nucleus or of contractile vesicle. The latter half of 

 the tubular volution of the young shells was observed not to be completely occupied by the 

 animal substance, whilst the central portion was densely filled, the oil-particles especially 

 accumulating in the latter position. When the calcareous shell of the parent Miliola was 

 carefully broken up, it was found to contain only trifling remains of fine granular sarcodc, 

 Avhich did not put forth anv pseudopodia, and in which no vestige could be traced of anything 

 resembling a young animal in progress of development. Hence it would appear as if the 

 principal part of the body of the parent had been transformed into the bodies of the brood of 

 young, which seem to quit the parent in an advanced condition, probiibly acquiring their 

 shelly envelope before leaving that of their progenitor. — Prof. Schultze has since (xcix, p. 320) 

 had the opportunity of observing a like phenomenon in the case of a small RoUdia, about 

 1-1 00th of an inch in diameter, which was living attached to the interior of a glass bottle. 

 The yellowish-brown contents, especially of the larger chambers, exhibited a peculiar coarsely 

 granular consistence, observable even with a strong lens ; and on breaking up the shell, which 

 contained ten chambers, twenty or thirty small Polythalamia were found in its interior. These 

 were all of equal or nearly equal size, and consisted of three mutually adherent, nearly 

 globular chambers, of which the first and innermost was the largest, and was filled with large 

 pigment-vesicles, resembling fat-globules, while the other two were colourless. The shell 

 was very thin and brittle, and corresponded in the dimensions of its chambers with the 

 first-formed portion of that of the parent. On watching other individuals which presented 

 the same coarsely granular appearance, it was observed that a multitude of granules suddenly 

 appeared in their neighbourhood, which proved, on examination, to be young Polythalamia, 

 of the same size and form as those artificially freed from their parent, and only differing from 

 them in showing the yellow colour in the second as well as in the first chamber. Whether 

 they made their escape by the rupture of the shell of the parent. Prof. Schultze did not 

 succeed in determining with certainty, but appearances favoured the belief that such was their 

 mode of exit. — Dr. T. Strethill Wright has lately (cxii, p. 362) confirmed an observation 

 formerly made by Ehrenberg, as to the presence of the young of SpirilHna vivipara in the 

 interior of the shell of the parent.^I may add that I have in my possession a 

 number of very young specimens of Orbitolitcs, consisting simply of the primordial chamber 

 and the one immediately surrounding it (Plate IV, fig. 22), which were removed by Mr. W. 

 K. Parker from the deeply-channeled margin of one of these large plicated forms of Orh'i- 

 fnlites that present themselves in certain localities of the Polynesian Archipelago. In that 

 specimen they occurred in considerable numbers. 



50. Whether the transformation of the sarcode-body of the parent into the substance of the 

 young occurs in the foregoing cases as the result of anything like a sexual act, or is e9"ected 

 (like the formation of zoospores among Protophytes) simply by the breaking up of the original 



