372 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 



nothing particularly unusual in the existence of close relationship 

 between a Sumatran and Brazilian species. Now if Dr Willey's 

 Peripatus had proved to belong to the same type as the Sumatran and 

 American species, then presumptive evidence in favour of the correct- 

 ness of the locality assigned toP. sumatranus, would have been supplied. 

 This, however, is not the case. Nor is it a particularly surprising fact, 

 considering the great faunistic differences that obtain between 

 Sumatra and New Britain with regard to many groups of animals, 

 especially those, like the Peripatidae, with very limited means of dis- 

 persal. More surprising is it on zoogeographical grounds that the New 

 Britain species also presents no near affinity with the species that 

 are met with in Australia and New Zealand, seeing that the latter 

 are congeneric. So, too, is it equally distinct from the last remain- 

 ing type, namely, that which inhabits S. Africa. The great interest 

 attaching to this species lies in fact in the circumstance that it 

 occupies an isolated position and is distinguishable from the rest of 

 its allies in exactly the same way that they are distinguishable from 

 each other, that is to say in external structural characters, in details 

 of internal anatomy and in the mode of development of the embryo. 

 And since the other previously known types had been designated by 

 generic names, there was no other course open to Dr Willey than 

 to assign a name to his new species. Unfortunately, he prefers, for 

 unstated, but no doubt excellent reasons so far as they go, to 

 regard the sections of Peripatidae as merely of sub-generic impor- 

 tance — unfortunately, because in nine cases out of ten, such titles 

 always assume the higher rank, and no doubt Paraperipatus will 

 follow its destiny. The result is that this new form rejoices in the 

 sixteen-syllabled title of Peripatus {Paraperipatus) novacbritanniae. 

 Regarding these divisions for the moment as genera, we now have 

 the following : Peripatus, Neotropical Region and Sumatra ; Peri- 

 yatopsis, S. Africa ; Peripatoides, Australia and New Zealand ; and 

 Paraperipatus, New Britain. The characters in which these genera 

 resemble and differ from each other are usefully summarised in 

 tabular form on p. 37 of Dr Willey's memoir. 



A New Palaeozoic Sponge 



Dk J. M. Clarke of Albany has sent us a paper contributed by him 

 to the American Geologist (vol. xx. pp. 387-392, pi. xxiii., Dec. 

 1897), on "A Sphinctozoan Calcisponge from the Upper Carboni- 

 ferous of Eastern Nebraska." The new sponge, to which Dr Clarke 

 has given the name Amolysiplionclla prosseri, is nearly cylindrical in 

 form and about 100 mm. (4 inches) in length. It is built up of a 

 vertical series of chambers or segments, and a central cloacal 

 tube extends throughout its length. The interior wall, the 

 transverse septa roofing the chambers, and the cloacal walls, are 



