358 Mr. E. A. AJinchin on the 



(1) Ascetta primordialis^ sptnosa, sp. n., cerebrum, clathruSj 



blanca, and Ga'thei. 



(2) Ascandra reticulum, Lieherhillinii, and angulata, sp. n., 



= Iacunosa, Johnston. 



(3) I/omandra, gen. nov., for H. falcata, H. 



Otlier recent writers liave followed, sometimes one, some- 

 times another of these many and various schemes of classifi- 

 cation^ though the majority incline to follow Polejaetf. 



From the above summary it seems clear that — 



(1) Lencosolenia, 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 Clatlirina, Gray, type species 

 C. clatJirus, O. 8. 



(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 Clatheina, Gray, 1867, emend. 



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

 anastomosing tubes, each system terminating 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 monaxons. Collar-cells with nucleus 

 at the base. 



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

 the species cordata, densa, and jxinis appear to be true ClatJmnas, and 

 the species echinoides, sertuluria, hotrys, nitida, and ^m?/s 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 for the preparation of his monograph, and named by him, I have 

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

 hotryuides, ?a\A pinvsoi complicata. It is probable that careful examina- 

 tion will prove many other of Hackel's species lo be equally unfounded, 



