Mr. H. J. Carter on Rainulina parasitica. 99 



parts of a mounted specimen of OpercuUna arahica that I 

 still possess, from which the calcareous material of the test. 

 had been removed by acid (' Organismus der Polythalamien,' 

 1854, p. 27, a, h) ; and two years afterwards he verified this in 

 a species of Miliola (Miiller's ' Archiv,' 1856, nos. 1 and 2, 

 p. 165, Taf. vi. B). In 1861 I found the same kind of thing, 

 but in a fossilized state, in a specimen of iSfunimuUtes Ra- 

 mondi dihovii one fifth of an inch in diameter, infiltrated witii 

 ochraceous oxide of iron, which thus renders the whole of 

 the structure in a vertical section through the centre, 

 when polished and overspread with Canada balsam under 

 a glass slip particularly brilliant and distinct. (I am not now 

 alluding to the " opaque scarlet spherules," to which I have 

 lately called attention.) In this condition the last chambsr 

 especially is observed to be filled with spherical bodies about 

 1 -1800th inch in diameter, translucent, and charged with 

 light brown granular contents (' Annals,' 1861, vol. viii. 

 pi. xvii. fig. 15). This preparation I still possess. So 

 much, then, for the reproductive body in the Forarainifera. 

 (2) The germination of this *' body " has not been actually 

 observed ; but, like that of the freshwater Rhizopoda just 

 mentioned, it may fairly be inferred to be similar to that of 

 the spore in the Mycetozoa. (3) The retraction of the ciliuiu 

 would follow as a matter of course, and the plasmic contents 

 thus become amoebiform. (4) But the '' flowing together " 

 of the amoebiform bodies to form a " plasmodium " is still 

 less evident than in the freshwater Rhizopoda, for the 

 development after the soft or plastic condition of tiie reproduc- 

 tive body of the species, especially in the Nautiloid forms, 

 can be followed from the commencement to the end, through 

 the plasmic chambers or lobes as they are successively pro- 

 duced becoming permanently represented in their forms by 

 shell-substance. 



At what period the reproductive bodies begin to appear in 

 this develo])ment remains to be discovered. But as regards 

 the possibility of the reproductive body germinating in the 

 chamber of the parent, Dr. Strethill Wright's statement iu 

 1861 may be noted (' Annals,' vol. vii. p. 362), viz. that he 

 had seen '' three small living Spirillince " in S. perforata^ 

 apparently confirming what Ehrenberg had noticed in 1841, 

 which led the latter to call the species " vivlparay Here 

 again I found the same kind of thing in a fossilized state in 

 an infiltrated specimen of Nummulites Rainondi about one 

 fifth of an inch in diameter, treated in the same way as that 

 above described ; that is to say, in the outer chamber, close to 

 one angle of the vertical section, there are several bodied which 



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