[The jMfjinrj of the last Part of the Trans, should have been 111 to 132, 

 inxtead of 1 — ''2. Members should correct this before binding, as in the 

 Index the corrected paging will be referred to] . 



TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE CKOYDON MICROSCOPICAL AND 

 NATURAL HISTORY CLUB. 



1887-88. 



G4. — Notes on the Foraminifeea, with especial kefeeence to 



VARIATION IN THE TeST, TOGETHER WITH COLLECTED IN- 

 FORMATION AS TO THEIR SEX AND REPRODUCTION. 



By C. Davies Sherborn, F.G.S. 

 (Kead September 14th, 1887.) 



The Foraminifera, notably the Nummulites, by reason of their 

 pecuUar shape, size, and abundance, became objects of curiosity 

 at an early period of geological research, the older authors 

 dealing chiefly with these lentil-shaped Tertiary fossils under 

 various names. Conrad Gesner seems to have been the first to 

 describe and figure any of these Protozoa, and in his ' De omni 

 rerum fossilium genere,' amongst several doubtful forms, he 

 figures what may be a VaiiinuUna. This book was published at 

 Ziirich in 1565. The earliest paper of real importance was one 

 by Janus Plancus (Bianchi), entitled ♦ De Conchis minus notis,' 

 and published in 1739. Plancus described some thirty forms, 

 many of which were identified by Linne in the 12th edition of 

 his ' Systema Naturae. ' The strikmg figures of what we now 

 know as Botalia Beccarii, CnsteUaria Calcar, C. cultrata, &c., by 

 Gaultieri, were published in 1742, and in 1758 came the 10th 

 edition of Linne's ' Systema,' in which for the first time the 

 Foraminifera received specific names. Very many more or less 

 interesting papers followed rapidly, and in 1781 Lorenz Spengler 

 published in the * Danske Skrifter ' his beautiful plates of 

 Peneroplis and CuJ carina, along with other forms. Geo. Walker, 

 in 1784, described some rare shells from the sand near Sandwich, 

 Kent. This work is of great interest, as Walker was the first 

 English author to describe the Foraminifera in any detail. 

 About this time, too, a master-mind was at work at Sionna, and 



