REPORT OX THE KERATOSA. ' S3 



Luffaria. Now, since for forms like Spongia fistularis the name of Verongia had been 

 proposed by Bowerbank many years before, Hyatt, in the year 1875, rejected^ the name 

 Ltiffaria as identical with Verongia. It may be so with respect to the Lttffaria of de 

 Fonbressin and Michelotti,but Mr. Hyatt was wrong in not paying attention to the proceeding 

 of 0. Schmidt,^ who in the year 1870 adopted Lx(ffaria, and furnished the genus with a 

 tolerably distinct diagnosis. He states that Luffarice are sponges with skeletal fibres 

 resembling those of a Cacosi-yongia but still differing from them chiefly in three respects : 

 — by a glass-like ("glasig") character of the fibres, by their faculty of splitting easily, 

 and by the possession of a narrow central canal, not identical, however, with that of the 

 true Aplysinidse. This latter statement Schmidt illustrates by a drawing representing a 

 fibre of a Liiffaria highly magnified. To these three characters 0. Schmidt appends a 

 fourth concerning the structure of the network formed by the fibres. He ascer- 

 tains that the fibres of Luffarice are approximately all of the same size, i.e., 

 comparatively thick, and that the irregular network formed by them terminates peri- 

 pherally not with an even surface but with a surface roughened by many prominent 

 fil^res, so that a portion of the skeleton if devoid of soft parts would represent 

 something comparable to a brush. In the Challenger Collection I find two specimens, 

 the properties of whose skeletal fibres agree with those of Luffarice as described and 

 illustrated by 0. Schmidt. I found, however, that the network of their skeletal fibres, 

 though ending peripherally in projecting fibres (PI. IX. figs. 2 and 4), is composed not 

 of fibres of one kind, as suggested by Schmidt, but of two kinds, of larger fibres all 

 approximately of the same thickness and of smaller ones originating from the first men- 

 tioned, but differing from them not only in diameter but also in their histological 

 structure, the central canal of many of these smaller fibres having been found to 

 be inconspicuous. Whether my specimens are to be regarded as deviating forms, or 

 whether the statement of 0. Schmidt was based on an insufficient study of the skeleton 

 of the Liffarice which he had for examination, I am not prepared to say. I must add, 

 however, that this last supposition seems to me to be very plausible, not only because the 

 later spongiological papers of 0. Schmidt do not show that attention to practical 

 details so characteristic of his " Spongien des adriatischen Meeres," but also because a 

 portion of the skeleton at least of the Challenger Luffarice, when washed and dried, 

 demands a microscopic examination in order to prove the presence of finer fibres, these 

 latter being not only of a paler colour than the larger ones, and covered by them almost 

 throughout, but also very scantily developed near the external surface. At any rate, 

 I see no grounds for rejecting the genus in question. Thanks to the great amiability of 

 Prof. Selenka of Erlangen, the type specimen of Spongia ( Verongia) fistularis, Esper, 

 has been placed at my disposal, and thus I am able to state that the difference between 

 Luffaria and Verongia — which latter genus differs from Aplysina only by the compara- 



1 Eevision, &c., vol. i. p. 401. ^ Spong. d. atlaiit. Gebiet., p. 30. 



(zooL. CHALL. Exr. — PAKT s?aci. — 1884.) Hh .5 



