AMONG SIMPLE 9ARC0DE ORGANTSMS. 439 



I have thus attempted, in the present Address and in that of 

 last year, to bring before you in rapid review a large number of 

 organisms with whose true structure and life-history biologists have 

 only quite recently become acquainted. They are among the most 

 interesting of those simple beings which, standing on the confines 

 of organization, constitute the group of the Ehizopoda in the 

 wider signification of this word. The marine forms represented 

 by the E-adiolaria and Eoraminifera have been only incidentally 

 touched on ; but the freshwater forms, with such dwellers in the 

 sea as most directly represent them, have been here examined in 

 all their most important features. 



Notwithstanding, however, the excellent work which we owe to 

 numerous continental observers, and in our own country to ~W. 

 Archer, much still remains to be known of the structure and life- 

 history of the freshwater B-hizopoda, and a rich field for explora- 

 tion lies open to the microscopic observer — a field, too, of easy 

 access ; for, unlike the objects which form the study of the marine 

 zoologist, these E.hizopods of fresh water may be found in almost 

 every inland locality wherever there are undisturbed pools, or 

 weedy ditches, or slowly running streams, in the shallow pools 

 which collect upon the wild moors where there is nothing to 

 intercept the heat and light of the summer sun, and even in 

 gloomy ponds shaded from sunlight by overhanging trees and 

 half-filled with decaying leaves. 



"While thus bringing before you the results of recent researches, 

 my exposition has necessarily assumed the character of a general 

 survey of the freshwater Ehizopoda and of the Monera and other 

 nearly allied organisms ; for almost all the knowledge we possess 

 of these simple forms of life has been derived from investigations 

 carried on within the last few years. 



I have hopes, therefore, that the exposition which I have en- 

 deavoured to give you in last year's Anniversary Address and in 

 that of the present year may be of some value in aff'ording aid to 

 the worker in one of the most interesting fields of microscopical 

 research. 



