338 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Two minute specimens at WS 88 and 92, and one rather larger one at WS 86. So far 

 as we are aware this is the first record of the species outside the British Isles, but we have 

 specimens in our collection from the Gulf of St Lawrence (212 fms.). The Falkland 

 Islands specimens, although so small, present all the well-known characters of the 

 species, the bulbous proloculum, the cylindrical test, largely composed of sponge 

 spicules, and the deep ferruginous colour. 



86. Reophax flexibilis, Schlumberger (Plate VII, fig. 21). 

 Reophax flexibilis , Schlumberger, 1894, FMAR, p. 243, pi. iii, fig. 10. 



Two stations: WS 90, 217. 



A single specimen of fourteen chambers (length 0-40 mm.) at WS 90 and two at 

 WS 217 one of which has seventeen chambers. Schlumberger 's record was from the 

 Bay of Kola, in Arctic Russia. It appears to be nothing more than a non-selective form 

 of/?, scottii (C. 1892, FS, p. 57, pi. i, fig. i) using sand grains instead of mica flakes with 

 the result that the chambers retain their spherical shape instead of collapsing on drying. 

 Occasional specimens are to be found in British gatherings where R. scottii occurs. 



87. Reophax distans var. pseudodistans, Cushman (Plate VII, figs. 17-20). 



Reophax spiculifera, Brady var. pseudodistans, Cushman, 1919, RFNZ, p. 598, pi. 75, fig. i. 

 Reophax spiculifera (pars), Heron- Allen and Earland, 1922, TN, p. 95. 



Three stations: WS 93, 246, 408. 



Single chambers built entirely of sponge spicules at WS 93 and WS 408, and many 

 similar isolated chambers at WS 246, together with one or two specimens in which two 

 successive chambers have remained unbroken. These give the clue to the nature of the 

 organism as the individual chambers might otherwise have been regarded as " selective " 

 varieties of Marsipella elojigota, Norman, nearly all the fragments having chambers of 

 great length as compared with their width. Individual chambers range up to 1-50, or 

 even 2-00 mm. in length, against a width of 0-30 to 0-50 mm. The stolon tube between 

 two chambers may be as long as 2-0 mm. 



The shape of the chambers is naturally dependent on the length of the spicules 

 employed. When the organism uses long unbroken needles the chamber must obviously 

 conform to their rigid line. When shorter or broken fragments are employed, the 

 chambers exhibit a natural tendency to form " beads" connected by stolon tubes. Minute 

 fragments of spicules must be employed in the tapering junction of the chamber and 

 stolon, and this is the weak point in construction which is responsible for the frag- 

 mentary condition in which specimens usually occur, as already noted by Cushman 

 {lit supra). There appears to be a definite point of weakness in the stolon tube at which 

 chambers separate. It is marked by a line of spicule fragments built together at right 

 angles to the main axis of the test and the direction of the other spicules. When moist the 

 test is flexible at these points. 



We prefer to associate Cushman 's varietal name pseudodistans with Brady's species 



