NO. 9 RESEARCHES OF JOSEPH JACKSON LISTER HERON-ALLEN 3 



record of such vital interest and importance that no apology is needed 

 for publishing it in cxtenso. It is the record of his observations upon 

 the reproductive processes of the microspheric form of Polystomclla 

 crispa (Linn.), and I have been able to compare this manuscript with 

 his original laboratory note-books, and with the records of his later 

 work in 1895, and in 1904-5. 



Lister's researches upon this organism appear to have commenced 

 in March-]\Iay, 1893, and it was during this period that he observed 

 the reproductive processes of the megalospheric form by means of 

 flagellispores, which observations he recorded, with a masterly study 

 of the dimorphism and nuclear conditions of the species, in his world- 

 famous paper read in June, 1894, and published in the Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Great Britain in 1895.^ By one 

 of those coincidences that are curiously far from uncommon in 

 science, Fritz Schaudinn was pursuing an identical line of inquiry at 

 the same time, and the same results were arrived at and published 

 almost simultaneously by both of these great men though working 

 quite independently and unknown to each other.' 



But when Lister's Philosophical Transactions paper was virtually 

 on the press, or at least awaiting publication, he was again at Plym- 

 outh, checking his former observations, and making further dis- 

 coveries which may well be described as epoch-making. Let him 

 tell us the story in his own words, but first let us consider for a 

 moment the organisms in question : they are : 



(a). Polystomella crispa (Linn.) : one of the commonest known 

 species, and one of practically world-wide distribution. 



(b). Polystomella niacclla (Fichtel & Moll) : a depressed and closely 

 allied species, found associated with P. crispa but somewhat rarer 

 north and south of the sub-tropical areas. I have recorded it myself 

 from Selsey, Torbay, Clare Island, Galway, St. Mawes, and St. 

 Andrews and the North Sea, so it may well have been among Lister's 

 material : he had no time to be an accurate systematist. 

 Lister does not seem to have recorded observations upon 

 (c). Polystomella striato-piinctata (Fichtel & Moll) until 1904. He 

 was again at Plymouth in June- July, 1904, as he says in his note-book, 

 " hoping to make some progress in the life-history of the Foramini- 

 fera." He records his observations upon the reproduction of the 



^ Lister, J. J., Contributions to the life-history of the Foraminifera. Phil. 

 Trans., Vol. 186 B., p. 401, 1895. 



■ Schaudinn, F., Die Fortpflanzung der Foraminiferen und eine neue Art der 

 Kernvermehrung. Biol. Centralbl., Bd. 14, No. 4, February, 1894. 



