Observations on British Zoophytes and Protozoa, 273 



zooid of the adult. It is therefore probable that the ova of 

 these genera undergo a " polymorphic " development of many 

 months' duration, similar to that described by Carter as 

 occurring in Amoeba verrucosa,* and that each ovum be- 

 comes transformed into numerous Amoeboid zooids, which 

 escape through the openings of the shell and form the pri- 

 mordial segments of future Khizopods. 



With regard to the male element, I have only one obser- 

 vation to record. Amongst a large number of dark-brown 

 Gromias which I have possessed for many months, one 

 appeared filled as to its upper part with a milky matter, 

 which, when pressed out, proved to be a congeries of cells 

 and large active molecules, such as are obtained from the 

 sperm-sacs of Hydra viridis. I was not able to make out 

 the tails of the spermatozoa ; but there could be no mistak- 

 ing the characteristic shape and movements of the cells and 

 molecules. The sarcode of the body in Rhizopods is itself 

 finely molecular in structure, and, when crushed, exhibits 

 slight molecular movements ; but these movements are alto- 

 gether different from those of the objects which I am per- 

 suaded are the spermatozoa of Chvmia. 



Since the foregoing paper was sent to the press, I have 

 received the April Number of the " Annals," in which 

 Schultze's discovery of living young in the chambers of 

 Rotdlia is brought before the readers of this Journal. Pro- 

 fessor Williamson, in his "Treatise on Kecent Foraminifera" 

 (Kay Soc. Publ.) states, in regard to his Spirillina perfo- 

 rata, " He (Professor Ehrenberg) assigns to it the trivial 

 name of vivipara, owing to the circumstance that just within 

 the septal orifice of his specimen he found two small spiral 

 shells, which had obviously found their way there by acci- 

 dent ; from this unimportant circumstance, he concluded 

 that the shell was viviparous." S. perforata is plentiful in 

 the Firth of Forth, on Fucus serratus. Immediately after 

 reading Schultze's paper, I examined a quantity of the sea- 

 weed, and found two large specimens of S. perforata sur- 

 rounded by a multitude of very small ones. In one of the 

 large specimens three small living Spirillinoe existed. Eh- 

 * Ann. Nat. Hist., eer. 2, vol. xx. p. 37. 



