438 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



vary greatly in form and number, and their appcaranco is coincident 

 with tlio commencement of the reproductive period. Reproduction is 

 effected by the formation of a chitinous layer around the mass of proto- 

 plasm which surrounds each nucleus ; there arc thus formed a number 

 of small embryos which divido repeatedly as they increase in size ; when 

 they have acquired a certain size they escape by the mouth. A freo 

 young form is provided with a chitinous test perforated by one porc 7 

 and contains a small external nucleus. Each embryonic chamber soon 

 produces by budding a small elongated chamber which becomes rolled 

 spirally round it ; other chambers arc afterwards produced till the 

 organism resembles a Miliola. The spiral arrangement becomes 

 irregular, and finally dendritic. 



The author is of opinion that the adult forms of certain Foraminifers 

 have been hitherto misunderstood, and that the condition in which all 

 the chambers are continuous is sometimes an embryonic stage. 



Nature of Opaque Scarlet Spherules found in many Fossilized 

 Foraminifera.* — Mr. H. J. Carter gives an account of curious coloured 

 bodies which he has observed in sections of various fossil Foraminifers. 

 At their earliest distinguishable stage they are colourless or slightly 

 opaque, indistinct, and situated simply " in the cells of an areolar 

 structure which fills the chamber of the Nummulite." Others are more 

 defined, adherent to each other or clustered ; others are more separated, 

 semitransparent, and of a brown colour ; finally, they present themselves 

 as opaque scarlet spherules. These last vary from 1/600 to 1/7000 in. 

 in diameter, and they are always confined to the sarcodiferous cavities of 

 the test, so that they cannot be confounded with any inorganic mineraliza- 

 tion. Mr. Carter cannot but regard these bodies as elements of repro- 

 duction, and compares them with similar bodies in recent specimens 

 which differ in not being red (which is the effect of mineralization). No 

 definite suggestion is offered as to the relation which the larger have to 

 the smaller spherules. 



New Species of Acineta.j — Mr. C. C. Nutting describes a new fresh- 

 water species of Podophrya, to which he gives the name compressa ; most 

 like P. buckii, it differs in having a distinctly compressed instead of 

 cylindrical body, and in the possession of a short and thick pedicle. 

 Observations on its mode of feeding did not support the ordinarily 

 received doctrine that solid food is not ingested through the tentacles. 

 A ciliated infusorian that had been seized as a prey was observed to have 

 four incisions made into its ectosarc, and soon four rapid streams of 

 protoplasm were observed passing into the body of the Acinetan ; during 

 the process solid coloured granules were seen to pass through the 

 tentacles of the captor. This ingestion of solid material explains the 

 apparent excretory function of the tentacles, for the Podophrya was 

 observed on one occasion to violently eject a stream of granular proto- 

 plasm by one of its tentacles. 



An account is given of the life-history of this form, and the fact that 

 the writer was at first entirely misled by discovering a specimen with 

 embryos clustered round its anterior end which appeared to have under- 

 gone exogenous gemmation, leads him to ask whether others have not 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., i. (1888) pp. 264-70. 

 t Ames. Natural., xxii. (1888) pp. 13-17. 



