.~>6 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ultimate branches, minute calices, and minute oval lenticular and disk- 

 shaped spicules embedded in a translucent horn -like ccenenchyma. The 

 new genus Isidoides has a solid calcareous axis, club-shaped calices ; 

 large bar-like spicules, and an operculum of eight pieces. 



Porifera. 



Regeneration in Chondrosia reniformis.* — 0. Maas cut up this 

 sponge and put the pieces in an aquarium. When the piece consisted of 

 cortex and medulla, or of medulla alone, it grew in a week or so into 

 an almost normal sponge. Pieces of cortex by themselves always died. 

 Pieces of medulla and cortex, or medulla only, formed a fresh cortex. 

 The choanocytes and archaeocytes coalesce in syncytia, and are re- 

 grouped. The canals disappear in part and are re-formed. The 

 regenerative capacity of Chondrosia is, on the whole, slight, and Maas 

 connects this with the fact that this sponge is not, in natural conditions, 

 very liable to injury. 



ArchsBOcyathinge.f — T. Griffith Taylor deals with the Archaeocya- 

 thinae of the Cambrian of South Australia, and gives an account of the 

 structure and affinities of the whole class. Five families are recognized, 

 Archasocyathidaa, Coscinocyathidae, Dictyocyathidae, Spirocyathidae, and 

 Syringocnemidas, and their inter-relations are discussed. The author 

 rejects the view that the Arehaaocyathinae were algae, and is not inclined 

 to place them near Anthozoa. He gives his reasons for placing them 

 in a new class nearer to the calcareous sponges than to any other. The 

 variation in shape and structure of a series of eighty species — dealt with 

 in his memoir — affords more trustworthy evidence than the microscopic 

 character of the skeletal elements which must have been considerably 

 modified in post-Cambrian periods. Practically all the form-variations 

 can be paralleled by the sponges and by the sponges alone. It is sug- 

 gested that in the Archseocyathinae we have evidence of the modifica- 

 tions of the "generalized type," which gave rise to the Calcarea and 

 Anthozoa. 



Protozoa. 



f Foraminifera from Funafuti.}— Frederick Chapman reports on 2M 

 species and varieties of Foraminifera from around Funafuti. He 

 describes Lagena juddiana sp. n., and two new varieties of BilocuUna 

 lucernida and Cassidulina bradii. Two fossil species, Lagena vmtricosa 

 and Virgulina pertusa are noted as recent for the first time. In relation 

 to the influence of light on the coloration of organisms in the ocean 

 depths, it is interesting to note the occurrence of deeply coloured (rose- 

 pink) tests of Polytrema miniaceum at a depth of 507 fathoms. A special 

 interest of the collection attaches to the large number of abyssal forms 

 occurring at depths from 2000 to 2728 fathoms, or from 2£ to over 3 

 miles. 



* Arch. Entwick., xxx. (1910) pp. 356-78 (4 figs.). See also Zool. Zentralbl., 

 xvii- (1910) pp. 560-1. 



t Mem. Roy. Soc. South Australia, ii. (1910) pt. 2, pp. 55-188 (16 pis.). 

 J Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) xxx. (1910) pp. 388-444 (4 pis.). 



