192 Mr. H. J. Carter 07i " Eozoon canadense." 



In a specimen of Orlitolites whidi I possess tlie emhryos 

 (2 to 10 or more in most of the chambers) appear to be ellip- 

 tical, almost like a Miliola ! 



Thus, as stated, the foraminiferous animal, built cell over 

 cell, at length arrives at the specific form, whether Nummulite 

 or Orbitoides &c., and throughout is but a repetition of the em- 

 bryonal chamber modified onlj in shape to accord with the 

 species. But still there are the tubuli perpendicular to the 

 plane of growth in the crusts of the chambers respectively ; 

 there are the chambers ; and in the intervals of the general 

 structure, which are filled up with calcareous material and 

 thus form the skeleton, is a reticulated system of canals pro- 

 duced by the branches of the stoloniferous sarcode, communi- 

 cating in all directions with the chambers through their walls 

 and with one another, finally opening on the exterior of the 

 test, and in their course, as I have before stated, often pre- 

 senting the spherical embryos in their transit from the chambers 

 to the exterior ; while the tubuli of the crust of the chambers, 

 being developed with these crusts successively as they are 

 piled upon one another, form thus a continuous communication, 

 through the cavities of the chambers, between the exterior 

 and very centre of the test. 



Hence, if a section of a fossilized form be made just above 

 or just below the chamber (that is, outside it), the tubuli of the 

 upper or lower part of the crust must he seen ; while if it be 

 made through the chamber, then the plane of the openings 

 inside must he seen. Indeed it is impossible to make a section 

 in which they do not come into view, or to examine a piece 

 not larger than a small pin's head without seeing them ; so 

 that to pretend to identify the acicular structure sometimes 

 observed to be standing perpendicularly on, but much more 

 frequently ^:>«?"«??eZ with, the surface of the grains of serpen- 

 tine in the Laurentian Limestone (which grains have been 

 viewed as the casts of the chambers of a foraminiferous animal) 

 with these tubuli, that always run directly to the chamber, and 

 should be thus seen in almost every atom of foraminiferous 

 structure, seems to me to be nonsense*. 



Nothing can be clearer than all that I have above stated of 

 foraminiferous structure, as seen under an inch-focus com- 

 pound power in my infiltrated specimens of Numimdites, 

 Orhitoides^ &c. from the Eocene formation of Western India. 



But in vain do we seek in the so-called Eozoon canadense 

 for the unvarying perpendicular tubuli, the sine qud non of 



* For good figures of this acicular structure,see Prof. King and Rowney's 

 paper, read ]2th July, 1869, Transactions of Royal Irish Academy, toI. 

 X. p. 506, pis. i. to iv. figs, 1 to G & 10a x respectively. 



