THE ANNALS 



•KSD 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 30. JUNE 1870. 



XLIV. — On Haliphysema ramulosa {Bowerhank) and the 

 Sponge-spicules of Polytrema. By H. J. Caetee, F.R.S. 

 &c. 



In the last Number of the '■ Annals/ p. 320, I have suggested 

 that Dr. Bowerbank's Haliphysema raimdosa might be a 

 branched form of SquamuUna scoprda^ and then have sub- 

 mitted the question whether there might not be some connexion 

 between the arborescent form of Polytrema and H. ramulosa^ 

 on account of the presence of sponge-spicules, stated by Dr. 

 Carpenter (Introduct. Study of Foraminifera, p. 236) to appa- 

 rently radiate from the extremities of the former. 



I am now, through the kindness of my friends Dr. J. E. 

 Gray and Dr. Carpenter respectively, enabled to answer these 

 questions definitively. 



In the first place. Prof. Oscar Schmidt has transmitted to 

 Dr. Gray, for the British Museum, among many others, two 

 slides bearing respectively specimens of Haliphysema Tuma- 

 nowiczii and H. ramulosa (Bowerbank) , Florida ; and in the 

 spiculiferous character of the extremities they closely resemble 

 Squamidina scopula ; but, in the absence of the '' pedestal," 

 and other points, it is not clear to me that they are identical 

 in species with S. scojjula and S. various respectively. 



Still, that there can be no doubt of the existence of a di- 

 chotomously branched species of the same kind of organism as 

 S. scopula, Prof. Schmidt's mounted specimen testifies. Be- 

 sides, this able naturalist promises, in a forthcoming notice, 

 which is already printed, certain observations on the subject, 

 showing that neither Haliphysema Tumanoiciczii nor H. ra- 

 mulosa can be sponges, although Prof. Schmidt is not at pre- 

 sent prepared to state exactly what the real nature of these 

 organisms may be. 



Thus the branched form of Haliphysema (Bowerbank) is 

 Ann. dc Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol.\. ' 27 



