454 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Classification of Sponges. 



From Madeira and the Azores : — 



3. Dactylocalyx Macandrewii] Dactylocalyx Masoni ] Dac- 

 tylocalyx BowerhanJcii, p. 94 ; "? Dactylocalyx Prattii. 



I believe, from the examination of the specimens, that all 

 these names belong to only three species, belonging to the 

 three genera Daciylocalyx, Myliusia^ and Macandrexoia^ each 

 of which, unfortunately, has several synonyms. 



It is to be observed, with one or two exceptions (and they 

 are more apparent than real), that all the species in this mono- 

 graph are founded on a single specimen — in other words, that 

 each specimen that has come under Dr. Bowerbank's exami- 

 nation is regarded by him as a distinct species or genus. 

 This being the case in this beautiful family of sponges, which 

 have such distinctive external appearance and characters, 

 which are to be so easily observed, and which come from so 

 few localities, it leads one to inquire, is the way in which 

 Dr. Bowerbank examines sponges a good one for the deter- 

 mination of genera and species ? And it leads one to look at 

 his ' History of British Sponges ; ' and there one observes the 

 same descriptions of species from the specimens collected in 

 the same locality or at the same time ; and, judging by this 

 monograph, I think that it explains the reason why in that 

 work so many sponges are described as new species. 



I am glad to see that the Ray Society is about to publish 

 figures of the species of British sponges, which must increase 

 our knowledge of Spongiadce ; but these figures, being taken 

 from slides prepared for the microscope, instead of from the 

 actual examination of one specimen, will thus, unfortunately, 

 have all the uncertainty attached to them that belongs to the 

 figures of this monograph. 



Dr. Oscar Schmidt, who stayed some time at St. Leonards, 

 in his just published ' Spongienfauna,' observes that Diplo- 

 demia vesicula " appears to be a fragment or a young state of 

 a Chalina " (p. 77) ; and in speaking of Hymeniacidon Buck- 

 landi, he observes that Dr. Bowerbank, in the diagnosis of 

 this sponge, says, " Tension-spicules tricurvate, few in num- 

 her.''^ " These siliceous bodies, belonging to Desmacidon, 

 have, without doubt, got into the preparation merely by acci- 

 dent" (p. 76). Mr, Carter informs me that this is a mistake 

 on Dr. Schmidt's part. The spicular composition of this 

 sponge is exactly as Dr. Bowerbank describes it. Schmidt 

 observes, under Desmacidon Jeffreysii (which he says is a 

 species of Esperia, and which Dr. Bowerbank now calls the 

 cloaca of a new genus, Oceanopia) : — " The anchor-shaped 

 siliceous bodies have escaped Bowerbank's notice in this spe- 



