Miscellaneous. 199 



region of the polyp, are of a very dark brown colour, upon which 

 there is a pure white collar, formed of spiciJes with a peculiar 

 crystalline texture, in no respect resembling the ordinary spicules. 

 Below the oesophagean region the colour of the polyp becomes much 

 lighter ; the tube becomes almost translucent, and allows the lines 

 of insertion of the septa to be traced. Then the colour deepens 

 again to the point of union. 



From this description it will be seen that we have to do with an 

 animal perfectly distinct from Farcdcifonium, although it is with 

 that form that it presents the most affinities. Fascicularia, I think, 

 must form the type of a third subfamily, the Fascicularinte, inter- 

 mediate between the Cornularinaj and the Alcyoninte, into which, at 

 present, it is generally agreed to divide the family Alcyonidie. — 

 GomjJtes Rendus, July 16, 1888, pp. 186, 187. 



On the Resemblance of the Primitive Foraminifera and of 

 Ovarian Ova. 



Prof. Ryder remarked that upon cutting sections of nearly 

 mature ovarian ova with their investing membrane, zona radiata, in 

 place, it was found that, in quite a number of cases, fine proto- 

 plasmic processes or pseudopods extended from the peripheral layer 

 of protoplasm of the egg, through its capsule or zona, and joined 

 the cells of the granulosa or discus proligerus. This arrangement 

 reminded one forcibly of the filamentous pseudopods extended from 

 a Heliozoon, or of the slender pseudopods extended through the 

 perforations in the walls of the single chambers of Glohigerina. 

 This resemblance is all the more suggestive if one will compare 

 a section of one of the chambers of a (Jlobifjerina made through the 

 calcareous shell and its contained protoplasm with a similar section 

 through the ovum of the Gar Pike, where the zona is formed of 

 pillars of homogeneous matter. Such prolongations of pseudopods 

 through the investing zona radiata, in the case of many species of 

 animal forms, shows fairly weU that this must be the principal 

 means by which new matter is taken up from without and incorpo- 

 rated, as there is no direct extension of the vascular system into the 

 egg, by which it can take up nutriment. It is thus seen that the 

 early stages of the growing ovum not only resemble some of the 

 lower forms of Heliozoa and Foraminifera as respects the grade of 

 their morphological diflerentiation, but also as to the mode in which 

 they exhibit their nutritive or physiological activities. This re- 

 semblance is still further heightened if a form like Orhulina is 

 compared with certain stages of the development of ova. It is 

 thus seen that, in many cases, the ovarian germ, at least, passes 

 through a stage which may be morphologically as well as physio- 

 logically compared with some of the lowest grades of the Protozoa. — 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. 8ci. Philad. Feb. 14, 1888, p. 73. 



