288 



and fruticosus. Being more and more convinced of the necessity 

 to keep up the rules of priority , I will abandon the name har- 

 pago I gave, and thus call the sponge in question Crambe fru- 

 ticosa (O. S.). But be this as it will , never could anybody erect 

 a new generic name without any further discussion. Crambe has 

 priority to Tetranthella , just coined by von Lendenfeld; hence 

 the latter name has to be cancelled. 



Another question arises , viz. with regard to the spicules , which 

 von Lendenfeld homologises with the Lithistid desma's. »Diese 

 Desmen können als desmisch umgewandelte Triaene , Tetraene , 

 Protriaene, Protetraene mit mehr oder weniger verkummertem 

 Schaft aufgefasst werden". *) This may be true; but I will call 

 attention to the fact that distinct axial canals are visible, but 

 that they are always (in my preparations) simply straight. I ne- 

 ver saw any tracé of a tetraxile arrangement nor even of a bi- 

 furcation of the canal. It may therefore be questioned whether 

 we have a right to consider these spicules as derivates from te- 

 traxile ones. ~) And on the other hand I am bound to say that , 

 in contradiction with von Lendenfeld I do believe that the chelae 

 belong to the sponge. They are by no means rare and they occur 

 in the type specimens both of Suberites crambe and S. frutico- 

 sus. Lendenfeld thinks the occurence of a chela ))zufallig"; the 

 occurence in both specimens makes me consider them not at all 

 »zufallig". 



1) l.c. p. 50. 



2) It is of course not an argument against my views that Sollas e. g. has figured 

 wdesma's" without any other tracé of axial fihre than a sraall straight line. I think 

 I need not explain this any longer; they are «rhabdocrepid" and not «tetracrepid desmas." 



