Mr. H. J. Carter on " Eozoon canadense." 191 



dently that such and such forms are or are not organic. 

 The mistake of identifying dendrites &c. with fossilized plants 

 has often occui-red, but not with acknowledged competent au- 

 thorities. 



Lastly, I possess a similar specimen of green Heulandite 

 from the trap of Western India, in which the green colour is 

 owing to the presence of a granular growth of glauconite 

 among the translucent zeolithic mineral ; and this brings me 

 to the so-called Eozoon canadense, which you and your col- 

 league Prof. Rowney conclude to be of a like nature, viz. 

 granular serpentine in calcspar. 



With your mineralogical view I have nothing to do, as it 

 would be presumption in me to even praise such high author- 

 ities ; but, from the fossilization point of view, I may be per- 

 mitted to state facts which I feel able to appreciate in con- 

 nexion with the subject. 



Before, however, going to adult foraminiferous structure for 

 comparison, it is desirable to premise its primary, which is 

 its elementary, form. 



Thus the assumed ovum of a foraminiferous animal is soft, 

 spherical, filled with granuliferous sarcode, and nucleated 

 while in the chambers of the adult living animal. After this, 

 on approaching the embryonal state, the capsule becomes cal- 

 careous and pierced all round with minute apertures, save at 

 one point, where there is a large one, from which issues, in 

 the living and active condition, the internal sarcode in the form 

 of a short cord terminated by a reticulated lash of filaments 

 (pseudopodia) of different lengths, which are ever changing 

 in shape {Amoeba-\i\.Q) as they are put forth in search of food 

 &c. The calcareous covering then becomes thickened, and 

 the "apertures" elongated into tubes which, in juxtaposition, 

 descend perpendicularly through the crust thus formed, and keep 

 up a connexion between the exterior and interior of the embryo. 



This is the elementary form or first chamber of a foramini 

 ferous animal ; and a repetition of it, produced by the sarcode 

 which issues from the large aperture, thus goes on stolonifer- 

 ously producing chamber after chamber, of the shape peculiar 

 to the individual, until the increments thus produced at last 

 arrive at the ultimate form of the species. 



The soft ovum can only be seen in the recent animal ; but 

 the spherical embryos, both in my specimens of recent Oper- 

 cuUna arahica and in the fossilized Nummulites &c., may be 

 seen in abundance, not only in the chambers, but in the tubes 

 (that is, in the branches of the stoloniferous prolongations of 

 sarcode; for they also clothe themselves with a calcareous 

 layer), on their way out from the chambers to the exterior. 



14* 



