Apr.. 1889 
F0RAMIN1FERA OF OBAN. 
77 
absorption, and does not depend upon the presence of 
sulphur, but upon the presence of Bacterio-purpurin. By its 
aid, in fact, they give off oxygen, and oxidise the sulphur to 
sulphuric acid. The elimination of oxygen is found to be 
proportionate, for different wave-lengths, to the absorbed 
energy of the light. Bacterio-purpurin, therefore, is a true 
cliromophyll, and is capable of acting, like the colouring 
matter of Diatoms and the red Sea-weeds, in somewhat the 
same way as chlorophyll. But it is known that in the latter 
two chlorophyll is present, though masked by the other 
colouring matters. In Bacterio-purpurin, however, chloro¬ 
phyll is entirely wanting. These experiments produce 
unexpected results, and may require confirmation ; but that 
they must not lightly be rejected is enforced by two other 
facts equally contrary to our usual hard and fast rules, viz., 
that three organisms which exactly resemble Bacteria, 
and which even De Bary includes among them, are coloured 
by real chlorophyll, and that several others (which, strange to 
say, do not contain chlorophyll) are capable of producing in 
their protoplasm a substance which is usually called starch, 
and which if not starch, or the “ granulose ” constituent 
thereof, is, at anv rate, verv closelv similar to it. 
But most Bacteria act like Fungi, requiring oxygen, and 
therefore would be able with advantage to live in symbiosis 
with Algae. The only instance yet recorded of what is 
believed to be such a connection is that of (xlaucotlirix with 
Bacillus muralis on the walls of a greenhouse ; the connection 
here, however, was of a looser nature than that svmbiosis of 
' _ v 
Algae with Fungi, which constitutes the Lichens. 
(To be continued.) 
FORAMINIFEKA OF OBAN, SCOTLAND.* 
BY E. W. BURGESS. 
At the end of 1887 and the beginning of 1888, I was 
entrusted with the material, No. 49,from 20 fathoms depth,near 
Dunstaffnage, Oban Dredgings (Birmingham Microscopical 
Society, 1888), to discover what Foraminifera it might contain. 
1 have washed the material, made a slide of the different 
species, containing 67 specimens, which is presented to the 
Society, and I now add a few remarks upon the several 
specimens, with references to the following papers upon the 
subject. 
* Transactions of the Birmingham Natural History and Micro¬ 
scopical Society, read 6tli June, 1888. 
