REVIEW. 



A Monograph of the Victorian Sponges, by Arthur Dendy, 

 D.Sc, F.L.S., Fellow of Queen^s College, and Demonstra- 

 tor and Assistant Lecturer in Biology in the University of 

 Melbourne. Part I. — The Organisation and Classification 

 of the Calcarea Homocoela, with Descriptions of the 

 Victorian Species (with plates i — xi). Melbourne, July, 

 1891. 



Under the above title a most interesting paper on Sponges 

 ha.; appeared, giving, it is not too much to say, the first 

 attempt at an accurate description of the histology of the lower 

 Ca.carea since Metschnikoff''s paper in 1879. 1 have been 

 working at the same group myself for about half of the last 

 five vears. As it is likely to be still some months before my 

 results appear, I think that it may facilitate discussion, while 

 noticing some of the principal features in Mr. Dendy's paper, 

 to indicate at the same time the extent to Avhich my work has 

 led me to similar or different conclusions. And I may com- 

 mence generally by saying that in the plates of this paper I 

 have had for the first time the pleasure of seeing drawings 

 which represent accurately the structures which have come 

 under my notice. 



The introductory criticism on Haeckel (p. 3) appears some- 

 what to underrate the power of variation in calcareous sponges, 

 particularly their plasticity to environment. Thus Sycandra 

 raphanus has formed a special variety in the Naples Aquarium, 



VOL. XXXII, PART IV, — NEW SER. T T 



