found in many Fossilized Foraminifcra. 265 



observations, however, it was necessary to summarize briefly 

 on that occasion, as my object then was chiefly to describe 

 the new species of Loftnsiid^ and not the reproductive process 

 of the Foraminifera. But now that the former has been 

 done I propose to return to the latter (so far as the scarlet 

 spherules are concerned) more particularly, and for this pur- 

 pose it seems best to describe how I came to regard tlie scarlet 

 spherules as reproductive bodies, and thus recognized them in 

 Loftusia persica. 



In limine^ then, it should be premised that there is a small 

 portion of Eocene formation on the western side of India, in 

 the neighbourhood of the towns of Surat and Broach, in the 

 province of Guzerat, which is thus described by Medlicott 

 and Blanford in their '■ Geology of India,' pt. i. p. 340 (1879), 

 viz. : — " North-west of Surat are thick beds of ferruginous 

 clay, assuming, where exposed, the characteristic brown crust 

 and pseudo-scoriaceous character of laterite, from which they 

 differ in no respect." These rest on " the traps," and " with 

 them are interstratified beds of gravel or conglomerate con- 

 taining agate pebbles (the agates being derived from the traps) 

 and limestone, sometimes nearly pure, but more frequently 

 sandy, argillaceous, or ferruginous, and abounding in Num- 

 mulites and other fossils. The thickness of the whole can 

 only be roughly estimated as between 500 and 1000 feet." 

 From this formation, about midway between Broach and 

 Surat and the town of Bang, at the village of Wasna or 

 Wansa, that is about 39 miles west-north-west of Broach, the 

 late Major FuUjames picked up some fragments, which he 

 sent to me at the Bombay branch of the Hoyal Asiatic Society 

 in the year l^oo, and of which an account will be found in 

 the ' Journal ' of that society (vol. v. p. 624 &c.). 



Some years afterwards, that is in 1861, I noticed that some 

 of the fragments contained foraminiferal tests in a brilliantly 

 coloured and infiltrated state, to examine which more particu- 

 larly I broke up a piece, and from it extracted several small 

 specimens of Nummulites and Orbitoides^ which, on being 

 ground down to a smooth surface and thus applied to 

 a " glass slip " by means of Canada balsam, presented 

 under a low power of the microscope sections of unwonted 

 structural clearness and definition, in which the whole of the 

 complicated and delicate parts, both shelly and sarcodic, 

 of the Foraminifera could be seen even better than in the 

 recent specimen. Further, they were more or less charged 

 with the " opaque scarlet spherules " in such situations that 

 they could not be regarded as anything but fossilized parts 

 of the recently living animal ; nor could any opinion be formed 



