191 
history, after once becoming free, to their original composite 
state, there is no recorded evidence forthcoming to prove. 
“ The question here arises, have these bodies any intimate 
connection with the origin or development of the Forami- 
mfera of the deep-sea deposits? Now, although the evidence 
on this head is very far from being conclusive, it is, I venture 
to say, sufficiently definite to countenance such a view. In 
some of the deposits in which both Foraminifera and Cocco- 
spheres abound, Coccoliths are to be met with arranged in 
an order so like that in which they occur on the Coccospliere 
cells, both on individuals of the Nodosarian textularian, Ro- 
talian, and Globigerine types, that no reasonable doubt can 
exist of their having more than a mere accidental relation to 
the surfaces they rest upon. Thus I have found, side by 
side, the perfect Coccosphere with its full complement of 
Coccoliths still adherent, and cells on which the number of 
persistent Coccoliths gradually dwindled down till only one 
or two remained, and it became impossible to determiue 
whether I was looking at a Coccosphere cell or a ‘ primordial 
segment ’ of a Foraminifer. In both cases (as formerly 
pointed out by me in ‘ The Annals ') the characteristic cross 
evoked by the polariscope is observable, whilst the density 
and specific texture of the cell or shell varies apparently with 
its age ; until, in some specimens, we have actually presented 
to us the complete Foraminifer studded externally, through- 
out its surface, with the Coccoliths in regular series. The 
subjoined extract is taken from a volume of MS. figures and 
descriptions which I had the honour of presenting to the 
Royal Microscopical Society of London last year, and relates 
to a mature eight-chambered Textularian shell, each segment 
of which is studded with Coccoliths. The specimen referred 
to was obtained along with numerous others, from a depth of 
1913 fathoms (upwards of two miles) between the coasts of 
Greenland and Labrador. 
“ ‘ The eight cells constituting the Textularia are quite 
perfect, and increase in size in the usual manner, from the 
earliest-formed to the last-formed chamber. The Coccoliths 
on each chamber are placed in so regular an order as to leave 
no doubt whatever regarding their being component portions 
of each calcareous cell. Their structure, moreover, from the 
clear character of the entire shell, is distinctly visible even 
under a i-inch lens. Textulariae thus constituted are by no 
means so rare as I imagined when I wrote the notice of the 
discovery in ‘ The Annals ’ (already referred to above). In 
every slide of certain soundings one or more generally occur. 
The material of this slide has been boiled in Liq. Potasses 
