266 Miscellaneous. 



On the Genus Oceanapia, Norman (Rhizochalina of Oscar Schmidt). 

 By Dr. J. E. Gkay, F.R.S. &c. 



Mr. Norman, in his " Eeport on the Shetland Dredgings," in the 

 Eeport of the British Association for 1868, p. 334, describes a genus 

 under the name of Oceanapia, founded on a sponge which Dr. Bower- 

 bank had described under the name of Desmacidon Jeffreysii ; and 

 he considers a sponge which Dr. Bowerbank referred to another 

 genus and called Isodictya robusta to be founded on fragments of 

 the same sponge. 



Dr. Bowerbank not only refers the sponge and the fragments to two 

 different genera, which, according to their characters, have a most 

 distinct organic structure, but in the specific character he describes 

 Isodictya robusta as being possessed of simple bihamate retentive 

 spicules, which he does not describe as existing in Desmacidon 

 Jeffreysii. 



Oscar Schmidt, in his work on Atlantic Sponges, published in 

 1870, overlooking Mr. Norman's genus Oceanapia, republishes the 

 sponge under the name of Rhizochalina, and figures two species (R. 

 olivacea and R. carotta) which appear to be separated on very slight 

 characters. 



Dr. Bowerbank, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 

 1873, describes and figures a species {Desmacidon fistulosa, t. iv.) 

 which he compares to D. Jeffreysii, evidently forgetting that 

 Mr. Norman made this species into a new genus having a very 

 peculiar external form and habit. 



Sponges from Ceylon. By Dr. J. E. Gkay, F.R.S. &c. 



E. W. H. Holdsworth, Esq., has kindly presented the specimens 

 of sponges which he obtained on the Pearl-banks and on the beach 

 near his house at Aripo, on the north-west side of the island of 

 Ceylon, to the British Museum. 



These specimens have been reported upon by Dr. Bowerbank 

 (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 25), and four of them figured and described. 

 Dr. Bowerbank considers them as belonging to 18 species. I do not 

 venture to give any opinion as to their distinctness ; but they appear 

 to be separated on wonderfully slight characters. 



Mr. Holdsworth some time ago sent to the Museum a specimen of 

 Xenospongia patelliformis in spirits from the same locality (loc. cit. 

 p. 32). 



The sponge that Dr. Bowerbank has figured as the type of a new 

 species under the name of Spongionella Holdsworthii (P. Z. S. 1873, 

 t. v. and t. vi. f. 7) is the same as Spongia papyracea, Esper (Pflan- 

 zenthiere, part ii. p. 38, t. lxv. and t. lxv. a), who received it from 

 the missionaries Johm and Rottler, from Tranquebar. The larger 

 specimen is figured as attached to a pearl-oyster, on one of the banks of 

 which Mr. Holdsworth found his specimen ; but it is a very variable 

 species, sometimes being cup-shaped, at others expanded and ear- 

 like. This sponge has been formed into a genus under the name of 

 Phyllospongia. It has very little affinity and quite a different 

 structure to Spongionella pulchra, which is considered the type of 

 the senus. 



