'i66 



•ENDEAVOUR" SCIENTIFIC RESILTS. 



I 



C. macroponi referred to by Whitelegge are mislabelled. The 

 ■chief reasons for the rejection of C. nmcropora as a synonym 

 of E. levis are two in number: — (i.) Lendenfeld perceived the 

 specific identitv of the different specimens of E. levis on the 

 one hand and of those of E. rubra on the other, throughout 

 their many variations ; and it is therefore most unlikely that he 

 .would assign other examples of the same species to a different 



genus, (ii.) Lendenfeld says of 

 ('. macropora that "the oscula 

 are very conspicuous and scat- 

 tered over the whole surface" 

 and "are on an average 5 mm. 

 wide and fairly abundant. " The 

 inference to be drawn from 

 WTiitelegge's remarks in this 

 connection, \iz., that Lendenfeld 

 may have mistaken for oscula 

 holes produced by a boring Iso- 

 pod, is highly improbable, and 

 the more so since, as Whitelegge 

 himself points out, E. levis 

 sometimes exhibits holes of the 

 same kind — but Lendenfeld was 

 evidently not deceived by these. 

 Oscular canals, the peculiar 

 arrangement of which has been 

 referred to in the diagnosis, are 

 not discernible in specimens 

 which have been denuded of 

 dermal covering, and in their 

 case accordingly, the most im- 

 portant feature for their identi- 

 fication is absent. This is the 

 condition of many of the speci- 

 mens before me which I assign to 

 the present variety ; although a 

 number of these depart very con- 

 siderably in form from such of 

 the specimens as are with cer- 

 tainty identifiable, the occurrence of seemingly intermediate 

 forms nevertheless renders it pretty certain that they all 

 belong to the one variety. Moreover, Lendenfeld's account of 

 the external form covers all these cases. 



Fig. 33 — C. iiuyiistans var. 

 lei'is. Modifications of opposite 

 extremities of the oxea. 



Description.- — The sponge consists of a compressed trunk- 

 Jike or (rarely) more cylindrical and stalk-like basal portion 

 from which arise few or many short branches which are 

 typically massive and irregular (Whitelegge, Plate xi., fig. 

 14) but may vary from cylindrical to much compressed or even 



