316 Mr. H, J. Carter on Squamuliua scopula. 



ture (^•). This aperture, however, cau very seldom be well 

 seen, owing to the forest of spicules which surround and inter- 

 cross obliquely over it in the dried state ; but occasionally it is 

 perfectly visible ; and when not so, it is frequently marked by a 

 brownish bit of sarcode which fills the opening, and, contrast- 

 ing in colour forcibly with the white mass of spicides sur- 

 rounding it, enables the position of the apertm'e to be easily 

 ascertained. 



The animal substance (fig. 11, «), which is of a pale yellow 

 coloiu- when living, occupies the cavity of the test, and resembles 

 that of the Foraminifera generally, in consisting of granuli- 

 ferous sarcode more or less charged with oil-globules. It may 

 be divided into three parts, viz. anterior, middle, and poste- 

 rior — or into pseudopodial, venti-al, and ovigerous. The former, 

 which, like that of Dijfiugia, is more attenuated and less 

 granuliferous than the rest, also fm-nishes the pseudopodial 

 prolongations ; the next division is charged with the frustules 

 of Diatoraacea?, especially the disks and filaments of Mehsi'ra, 

 minute Alga; like Bivxlaria \Euactis7j, and bits of dark brown 

 matter from the" decaying portion of the root of Laminar la 

 bidbosa, near which Squamulina scopula likes to congi-egate, 

 the latter causing the ventral sarcode to assume so much the 

 appearance of the sarcode of ^Etlialium that it may be worth 

 Avhile to allude also to this again more particularly hereafter. 

 Last of all comes the posterior division, which is more or less 

 charged with spherical, transparent, nucleated cells (^fig. 4c') , such 

 as are commonly found in both Foraminifera and the testaceous 

 freshwater Rhizopoda, and which I have often and long since 

 figured and described in these organisms respectively in the 

 pages of this periodical. This portion is a little denser than 

 the rest, occupies the posterior or lower part of the cavity of 

 the column and pedestal, and, when dry and contracted, pre- 

 sents a dark brown colour. 



When the column is detached from the pedestal in the living 

 state, the ventral and ovigerous sarcode may be easily pressed 

 out of the lower end of the former (fig. 11 ;, and thus examined 

 under a high power, when the facts which I have mentioned 

 may be easily verified. 



In form, the test of Squamulina scopula differs very much, 

 first, by age and growth, and, secondly, by some parts being 

 more developed in some specimens than in others. Thus, if 

 young, it may be short, the dilatations only amounting to one 

 or two ; or if old, to four or five : hence one of the latter 

 has been chosen for the illustration (fig. 3). The pedestal, also, 

 may be more or less atrophied ; and its circumference may, 

 instead of a circular, have a more or less undulating margin. 



