126 REPORT— 1872. 



miglit he attributed to tliat suppression of stages of embiyological development 

 •which might be illustrated from many cases both in zoology and in botany. 



Of course it might be argued that these facts have not really the significance 

 which to him they seemed to possess. It might be said that when the Divine 

 power created insects they were created with these remarkable developmental 

 processes. So it had been said that when God created the rocks he created the 

 fossils in them. Probably no one would now maintain such a theory ; and he 

 believed the time would come when the contents of the egg and its developmental 

 changes would be held to teach as truly the course of organic development in 

 ancient times as the contents of the rocks told us the past history of the earth 

 itself. 



In conclusion, there was one matter which he could not but touch upon, but 

 which he yet could not properly treat at length. Great anxiety had been felt 

 during the last few months lest changes should be made at Kew which would 

 prove prejudicial to its scientific work, and lead to the retirement of Dr. Hooker. 

 He felt sure that he only expressed the feeling of the scientific world when he 

 said that such an event would be a misfortune to science, and when he stated his 

 hope that the Government would do nothing to retard or impede the valuable 

 scientific work now going on at Kew. 



BoTAXT. 



On Traquairia, f? Hadlolarlan llluzopod from the Coal-measures. 

 Bij W. Caeeutheks, F.R.8. 



In the investigation of a large series of sections of fossil plants, prepared by 3Ir. 

 Norman, Mr. Carruthers had detected several spherical spiniferous bodies not 

 unlike Xanthidia, but having a very different structure and a much greater size. 

 The hollow globular cavity is included in a clearly defined structure, which Mr. 

 Carruthers thinks is a fenestrated shell ; but he had' not been able to .secure sections 

 which completely established this point. Beyond this there is a considerable 

 thickness of a spongy substance which rises externally into numerous cones, the 

 bases of which are in close proximity. From the apex of each cone there proceeds 

 a hollow echinate sjnne. The echinations are also hollow; and at the apparent 

 base of the spine these echinations are produced into hollow tubes, which, repeatedly 

 branching and anastomosing and increasing in number downwards, enclose the 

 radial hollow spine in the mass. The whole an-angement of the parts agreed 

 with what is found in some existing forms of Radiolarians, especially in some with 

 solid spines ; but the hollow structure of these organs in the fossil indicated rela- 

 tions with a small section of the recent group. No certain indication had yet been 

 detected of the central capsule ; but Mr. Carruthers having found starch and other 

 readily perishable siibstances perfectly preserved in some fossils, had hopes that the 

 central capsule may have left traces behind in some specimens. Ehizopods of the 

 Radiolarian type, but without the central capsule, had been described by Cien- 

 kowski, and especially by Archer. Perhaps amongst them this palfeozoic form 

 may at last be placed. One would expect it to be a freshwater organism ; yet it 

 might, as a marine animal, indicate the first trace of one of the changes of level 

 which were not unfrequent in the Carboniferous period. Mr. Can-uthers had asso- 

 ciated with this interesting animal the name of his friend Prof. Traquair, of 

 Dublin, to whom he was indebted for assistance in working out its structure. He 

 proposed to name it Traquairia. 



Ramie, a new Te.riile Plant ; ivith Description of its Uses, Mode of Tropa- 

 gation, Cidtivaiion, as practised in the Southern United States of America. 

 By C. r. Denxet. 



This new textile, lately introduced to agi-iculturists of the Southern States of 

 America, is a native of the island of Java, and was first brought to Europe for 



