372 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 
nothing particularly unusual in the existence of close relationship 
between a Sumatran and Brazilian species. Now if Dr Willey’s 
Peripatus had proved to belong to the same type as the Sumatran and 
American species, then presumptive evidence in favour of the correct- 
ness of the localityassigned to P. swmatranus, would have been supplied. 
This, however, is not the case. Nor is it a particularly surprising fact, 
considering the great faunistic differences that obtain between 
Sumatra and New Britain with regard to many groups of animals, 
especially those, like the Peripatidae, with very limited means of dis- 
persal. More surprising is it on zoogeographical grounds that the New 
Britain species also presents no near affinity with the species that 
are met with in Australia and New Zealand, seeing that the latter 
are congeneric. So, too, is it equally distinct from the last remain- 
ing type, namely, that which inhabits 8. Africa. The great interest 
attaching to this species lies in fact in the circumstance that it 
occupies an isolated position and is distinguishable from the rest of 
its allies in exactly the same way that they are distinguishable from 
each other, that is to say in external structural characters, in details 
of internal anatomy and in the mode of development of the embryo. 
And since the other previously known types had been designated by 
generic names, there was no other course open to Dr Willey than 
to assign a name to his new species. Unfortunately, he prefers, for 
unstated, but no doubt excellent reasons so far as they go, to 
regard the sections of Peripatidae as merely of sub-generic impor- 
tance-——unfortunately, because in nine cases out of ten, such titles 
always assume the higher rank, and no doubt Paraperipatus will 
follow its destiny. The result is that this new form rejoices in the 
sixteen-syllabled title of Peripatus (Paraperipatus) novacbritanniae. 
Regarding these divisions for the moment as genera, we now have 
the following: Peripatus, Neotropical Region and Sumatra; Peri- 
patopsis, S. Africa; Peripatoides, Australia and New Zealand; and 
Paraperipatus, New Britain. The characters in which these genera 
resemble and differ from each other are usefully summarised in 
tabular form on p. 37 of Dr Willey’s memoir. 
A NEW PALAEOZOIC SPONGE 
Dr J. M. CLarKE of Albany has sent us a paper contributed by him 
to the American Geologist (vol. xx. pp. 387-392, pl. xxiii, Dee. 
1897), on “ A Sphinectozoan Calcisponge from the Upper Carboni- 
ferous of Eastern Nebraska.” The new sponge, to which Dr Clarke 
has given the name Amblysiphonella prosseri, is nearly cylindrical in 
form and about 100 mm. (4 inches) in length. It is built up of a 
vertical series of chambers or segments, and a central cloacal 
tube extends throughout its length. The interior wall, the 
transverse septa roofing the chambers, and the cloacal walls, are 
