358 Mr. E. A. jVJinchiu on the 



(1) Ascetta primordialis^ spinosa, sp. n., cerebrum^ clathrus^ 



hlanca, and Gcethei. 



(2) Ascand7-a reticulum, LieherkUhnUy and angulata^ sp.n., 



^=Iacu?}Osa, Johnston. 



(3) Ilomandra, gen. nov., for H. falcata, H. 



Other recent writers liave followed, sometimes one, some- 

 times another of these many and various schemes of classifi- 

 cationj though the majority incline to follow PolejaefF. 



From the above summary it seems clear that — 



(1) Levcosoienia, with type species hotryoides, is the generic 

 name which belongs to the second of my groups. 



(2) The first of my groups, the group to which I have 

 generally referred as the coriacea group, would claim as generic 

 title the name Nardoa of Schmidt, with reticulum as type 

 species, were not this name preoccupied in another class of 

 the animal kingdom, and therefore inadmissible. The first 

 of the names by which any member of this group was after- 

 wards described must therefore be taken instead of Nardoa^ 

 which gives as generic name Clathrina^ Gri'^y? type species 

 C. clathrus, O. S. 



(3) Falcata was first described as Ascandra falcata^ H. 

 Since all other species of Hackel's genus Ascandra are to be 

 distributed among the genera Clathrina and Leucosolenia^ it 

 remains alone in the genus *, and therefore claims the name. 

 Should any other species of Ascandra prove to have a prior 

 claim to the name, then Lendenfeld's name Homandra would 

 have to be used. 



Hence my classification of the Ascons will run as follows : — 



I. Genus Clathrina, Gray, 1867, emend. 



The full-gro-wn colony forms a system or systems of reticulate and 

 anastomosing tubes, each system teiminating' in a cloaca-like osculum ; 

 incrusting, massive, or stalked. The principal spicules of the skeleton are 

 equiangular triradiate systems, to which may be added sagittal triradiates 

 in certain parts of the sponge, and monaxous. Collar-cells with nucleus 

 at the base. 



* Of the other species enumerated by Hackel in his genus Ascandra, 

 the species cordata, densa, and pa^iis appear to be true Clathi-inas, and 

 the species echinoides, sertularia, botrys, nitida, and pmus are Leuco- 

 solenias. From the examination of type .specimens in the collection of 

 the Rev. A. M. Norman and elsewhere, types which were used by 

 Hackel i'or the preparation of his monograph, and named by him, I have 

 the clearest evidence that hotrys, and probably also nitida, are synonyms of 

 hotryoides, andjmms of complicata. It is probable that careful examina- 

 tion will prove many other of Hackel's species to be equally unfounded. 



