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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
as is lmown to be tbe case in bees and wasps, but the following statement 
would seem to show that they do so. Sir John Lubbock says : — “ I have a 
nest of Formica cinerea which I brought from Castellamare, in December 
1875, and which has no queen ; nevertheless eggs were laid in it last spring, 
and these eggs produced winged individuals only, all, I believe, males ; but, 
unfortunately, they emerged one day when I was away from home, and I 
lost the opportunity of examining them carefully. None of the eggs, how- 
ever, produced workers.” 
The Lower Sarcode Organisms . — In his Presidential addresses to theLinnean 
Society for the present year and 1876, Professor Allman has noticed the 
progress made in the knowledge of those low forms of animals which, con- 
sisting almost wholly of undifferentiated sarcode, may be looked upon as 
occupying the very lowest step in the series of animal organisms, even if we 
decline to refer them, with Hackel, to the neutral group of the Protista. 
The address for 1876 is just published in full in the “Journal” of the 
Society ; it is fully illustrated, and contains an admirable summary of the 
results of recent researches upon the lowly organisms of which it treats. 
In his address delivered on the 24th of May last Professor Allman re- 
marked that to the investigations of Archer and others in this country, and 
of Hertwig, Lesser, Schulze, and Greeff, in Germany, much of our knowledge 
of the Monothalamic Rhizopods of freshwater is due. These latter forms 
may be divided in accordance with the nature of their pseudopodia, in some 
these processes being short, thick, and finger-shaped (Lobosa) ; in others 
long slender threads (Filifera). 
Quadrula with a sculptured shell illustrates the former, and the still more 
curious Microgromia socialis the latter. This last forms colonies united by 
a network of gelatinous threads. Moreover, Hertwig has shown that the 
protoplasm of M. socialis divides by spontaneous fission into two segments, 
one of which remains in the shell ; the other, forcing its way out, assumes 
an oval shape, and develops vibratile flagella, and not pseudopodia, thus 
becoming a free-swimming flagellate zoospore capable of ultimate develop- 
ment into the adult form. The importance of Hackel’s discovery that starch 
is contained in the so-called “ yellow cells” of the Radiolaria was referred to. 
Messrs. Dallinger and Drysdale have shown that the flagellate monads may 
acquire an amoeboid condition, and move about by the aid of pseudopodia; that 
two such amoeboid forms, when they come in contact with one another, 
become instantly blended together at the point of contact, and ultimately 
fused together throughout, when their mingled protoplasm assumes the 
form of a spherical sac filled with particles of immeasurable minuteness. 
These particles are germs destined for the reproduction of the individual. 
Their form can be demonstrated only by the highest powers of the micro- 
scope, such as the 1-50 inch object-glass. Not only has their development 
into the adult form been traced, but the unexpected fact has been elicited that 
these germs can be subjected to a temperature of 258°-300° Fahr. without 
losing their vitality and power of development — a fact of vast significance 
in its bearing on experiments connected with the question of spontaneous 
generation. Hertwig and Schulze have quite recently made the discovery of 
a nucleus in the Foraminifera. This group, therefore, must now be removed 
from the region of Cytodes, or non-nucleated protoplasmic masses, and 
