82 LIVERPOOL MARINE BIOLOGY COMMITTEE REPORT. 



the exception of the one from the river Uruguay and those 

 from Lake Baikal, have been proved to reproduce in addition 

 by means of a seed-like body or " statoblast." The method of 

 reproduction in the case of Uruguay a coralloides, and of 

 Luhomirskia haicalensis with its varieties and allies, is not 

 known, but the most diligent search by various observers has 

 not resulted in finding the statoblast in any examples of the 

 different species. In this respect, for the present, these fresh 

 water species stand apart from the rest of the Spongillidae 

 which are classified according to the spicules of the statoblast, 

 the body spicules of the various species not being sufficiently 

 different from each other for the purpose. Isodictya varians * 

 in its form bears a very strong resemblance to Uriiguaya 

 coralloides and to Luhomirskia haicalensis , and it also con- 

 tains in quantity in its spiculation the curved cylindrical 

 form of spicule common to them. The points of resem- 

 blance, or, it may be, of relationship, therefore, between these 

 marine and fresh water species seem well worth recording. 



L. M. B. C„ No. 85. 6. Collected at Hilbre Island. 



L.F.M., No. 32. 12. 69. 40. Type specimen. Collected 

 on the Mersey shore, at Egremont, in 1869. 



Isodictya elegans, Bk. 

 Dr. Bowerbank figures three fragments, as type speci- 

 mens of this species, f Professor Herdman obtained one 

 specimen at Port Erin, of reptant growth; but in a shore 

 pool where the sponge was protected and could grow freely, 

 he obtained two nice complete specimens of erect growth, 

 tubular and branched. The colour of these when taken 

 was lilac pink, a colour which is seen in some species of 

 Chalina, and which, coupled with other characters common to 

 both, may be regarded as indicating a relationship between 



* Mon. Brit. S-pong., vol i, pi. xx, fig. 309 ; for skeletal network of 

 spicules, vol. ii., p. 281 ; vol. iii., pis. xlviii and Ixxxviii. 



t Mon. Brit. Spong., vol. ii, p. 283, and vol. iii, pi. xlix, figs. 1-5. 



