102 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



formed at first of six to eight refringent globules, which fuse with one 

 another to form the single lens of the full-grown individual. The choroid, 

 also, results from a concentration of pigment-granules, which are at first 

 scattered. 



New Foraminifer.* — Prof. H. Blanc describes a new Foraminifer, 

 dredged in the Lake of Geneva, from a depth of 120-200 metres. He 

 names it provisionally Gromia Brunneri, but thinks that it will probably 

 deserve to form a new type of this genus. It is of large size, from • 3 mm. 

 to 1 • mm. ; it varies from flask-shaped to globular, and has a single open- 

 ing. The shell, slightly lemon-yellow in colour, is formed of fine particles, 

 probably siliceous, glued together. The protoplasm contains a single 

 nucleus and several vacuoles ; it covers the shell and forms a network 

 similar to that of other species of Gromia. 



Colonial Radiolarians.t — The thirteenth volume of the Monographs 

 of the Naples Zoological Station contains an account of the Sphferozoa or 

 colonial liadiolariaus by Dr. Karl Brandt. The monograph treats of these 

 forms under the four heads (1) Morphology, (2) Biology, (3) Keproduction 

 and Development, and (4) Systematic, and in its exhaustive historical 

 siuvey and independent investigation, as well as in its wealth of illus- 

 tration, well supports the character of the splendid series. From the nature 

 of the group the number of new results is not of course very great. 



I. MorphoJogi). — After a general introduction and historical sketch of 

 the progress of our knowledge of the Sphserozoa, Dr. Brandt proceeds to a 

 morphological survey. (1) The j^rotoplasm. The central protoplasm differs 

 physically and chemically from the peripheral. The latter consists of 

 pseudopodia and assimilative protoplasm darkened by sujierosmic acid. 

 The central substance is not so darkened, and this is but an index to 

 other differences, (a) Tlie central substance is divisible into two masses ; 

 the inner surrounding the oil-globules, the nucleus-containing vacuoles in 

 spore-formation, as also pigment granules and large crystals ; the outer 

 surrounding the nuclei, (h) The cortical substance often contains abundant 

 granules while the central contains none, or vice versa. It consists, as noted 

 above, of assimilative and of pseudopodic protoplasm. (2) The nuclei. In 

 the vegetative period the nuclei are homogeneous. Those of the isospores 

 are doubly refractive, which probably expresses a very fine differentiation. 

 Those of the anisospores and of the " extracapsular bodies " formed in the 

 young vegetative colonies are further difierentiated. The phenomena of 

 nuclear division in the anisospores of Collosphteridfe appeared to be very 

 simple. (3) TJie central-capsule membrane is regarded as homologous with 

 the cell-wall. In some vegetative colonies it aj^peared to be absent, but 

 even then the central and cortical protoplasms were not exactly continuous. 

 Pore-canals were observed in Collosphsera huxletji. The membrane cannot 

 be detected during or after the escape of the swarm-spores. (4) The oil- 

 (jlobulcs appear early and remain till the close of the vegetative life. In 

 very young colonies and in the swarm-spores they are represented only by 

 fine granules. Only in one form is there more than one large globule in 

 each individual. The author doubts the existence of an albuminoid basis, 

 and regards the inclosed substance as fat. (5) TIte crystals, which are 

 present only during the reproductive period, are distinguished into largo 

 forms, which do not pass into the spores, and small forms which do. They 

 are never truly crystalline. The large forms are excretions, the small 



* Arcli. Sci riiys. et Nat., xvi. (1886) pp. 3G2-G. 



t Fauna u. Flora des GoUce v. Neapcl, Mouograpliie, xiii. (1885) viii. and 276 pp. 

 and 8 pis. 



