100 Mr. H. J. Carter on Ramulina parasitica. 
appear to be elements of reproduction in a state of germina- 
tion, only one of which, however, has so far advanced as to 
produce a test which is recognizable, and this is a Nautiloid 
form consisting of the primary cell and two following cham- 
bers, altogether measuring about 1-360th inch in its longest 
diameter; so that if the surface of the section presents one of 
these the whole cavity may contain many more; nor does it 
appear likely that this one had come from the exterior, for 
besides the apparently closed and unfractured state of the 
chamber it is not likely that the reproductive body would 
return for germination to that or any other chamber of the 
Nummulite in which it was produced. 
By what course the reproductive bodies of the Foramini- 
fera are eliminated also remains to be discovered, or whether 
the test becomes effete like that of the Mycetozoa and fresh- 
water Rhizopoda. That the latter appears to be the case is 
indicated by the great number of empty tests and the few 
filled with the living animal that I found in the bed of Oper- 
culina arabica on the south-east coast of Arabia (* Annals,’ 
1852, vol. x. p. 168), and especially by the beds of Nummu- 
lites whose enormous thicknesses have given rise to the term 
“ Nummulitic Series.” 
Thus Ramulina parasitica in an evolutionary point of 
view seems to be an initiatory form of the Foraminifera, 
and in organization ranks with the Mycetozoa and the fresh- 
water Rhizopoda. 
N.B.—The type specimens referred to in the above paper, 
consisting of a slide and asmall thin fragment about 13-12ths 
by 7-12ths inch square, polished on both sides, have been 
deposited in the Geological Department of the British Mu- 
seum, and the two large ‘‘ hand-specimens ” from which they 
were taken, marked “ H. 47. 83” and “ H. 47. 84” respec- 
tively, have been returned to the museum of the Geological 
Survey of India at Calcutta. Also the type specimens to 
which. I] have referred in each of my last six papers in 
the ‘Annals’ have been deposited in the same department 
of the British Museum. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE VII. 
N.B.—All the illustrations are necessarily more or less diagrammatic, 
from the minuteness of the objects, but with as little deviation from the 
natural characters as possible. 
Fig.1. Ramulina parasitica, n, sp., lobes yarying under 1-360th inch in 
