BY E. F. KALLMANN. 297 



Papillina ramulosa. (PL xxii., fig.5). 



In addition to the type-specimens, five in number and well- 

 preserved, another example of the species (correctly labelled) is 

 included among the fragments received from the British Museum. 



As I already have had occasion to mention, a figure of a 

 specimen of Sph^astreUai}.) ramulosa is given in the Catalogue 

 (PI. i., fig. 2), but is wrongly indicated as being one of Pa'pillina 

 panis. In regard to the external features of the species, the 

 original description may stand without amendment, except in one 

 particular : the small circular openings scattered over the surface 

 are not oscula, as Lendenfeld has stated, but simply holes due to 

 the presence, here and there beneath the surface, of symbiotic 

 operculate Cirripedes. These openings, then, are of the same 

 nature as those which Lendenfeld also described as oscula in the 

 case of Cliona lutea. In view of such an error, indicative as it 

 is of extremely superficial and hasty observation, one need 

 scarcely remark how little is the value to be attached to the 

 statements concerning the minuter details of the canal-system. 

 As in *S'. australis, the whole interior of the sponge, quite to the 

 surface, is very dense, and canals are few and of small size. The 

 largest canals, which run in an ascending direction, are usually 

 very much less than 1 mm. in diameter; they are always easily 

 traceable to immediately beneath the surface of the upper parts 

 of the sponge, and some of them, at least, can be seen to terminate 

 in very minute oscula. 



The peculiar "fibres" composing the main skeleton, as revealed 

 in a macerated specimen, are arranged dendritically: owing to 

 their mode of branching, they exhibit a tendency to become 

 restricted in their disposition to a limited number of vertical 

 planes of branching, or, in other words, to be arranged in flabel- 

 late systems. They are from more or less strap-shaped to cylin- 

 drical, and (in the only specimen in which they were examined, 

 one measuring 1 20 mm. in height) measure about 1 mm. in stout- 

 ness at the base of the sponge, and about 05 mm. at its top. 

 Anastomosis between the "fibres" occurs, but it is not very 

 frequent, except in the older portions of the sponge. 



6a 



