404 
Mr. W. J. Sollas on a new 
tudinal axis , and (p. 9) that the ventral surface of the embryo 
corresponds to the ventral surface of the parent , and, further 
(p. 11), that the embryo adheres to the mother by the end of 
the peduncle. When, therefore, Nitsehe complains that, owing 
to my inaccurate statements, orientation is not possible, he has 
certainly not been sufficiently careful. Vogt’s reproach also, 
that my drawings are u plus que schematiques,” is not correct. 
Certainly, as Vogt could discover in the younger buds no cells, 
but only amorphous sarcode masses, while my figures give the 
most accurate outlines of the cells according to their form, num¬ 
ber , and arrangement , such as are to be found in none of the 
other memoirs, his statement is intelligible. My figures on 
plate iii. are therefore all concordantly oriented ; and 1 do not 
merely appear to suppose, as Nitsehe says, that in all the 
figures the upper and lower ends of the drawings are equiva¬ 
lent, but they are equivalent. If therefore, where my suc¬ 
cessors show a few indistinct cell-like bodies as the mesoderm, 
I, in my figures, show distinct cells coming together, and the 
mesoderm developing itself from the ectoderm before our eyes, 
I am bold enough to regard this as an excellence of my 
work. 
Of the development of Loxosoma we at present unfortunately 
know only fragments. The complete series of observations 
which J. Barrois appears to have before him are still delayed in 
publication. My question whether the organs designated by 
o in my figure of the swarming larva (Taf. ii. fig. 25), re¬ 
peated in the 1 Thierleben ’ (p. 181, fig. b), are provisional 
eyes, I now retract. It seems to me more correct to suppose 
that these two dark ovate bodies are the bud-stocks, which 
appear so early in the bud. 
XLV.— On Pliaretronema zingiberis, a new Genus and Species 
of Renierul Sponge. By W. J. Sollas, M.A., E.G.S., 
&c. 
[Plate XXX.] 
Pliaretronema zingiberis (milii). 
(Examined in the dried state.) 
Sponge single, attached ?, stipitate, in general form pal- 
mato-digitate or hand-shaped; stem short and compressed, 
widening about one inch above its base into an irregular 
palmate expansion, which is slightly curved from side to side 
and divides into a number of irregular cylindrical or com- 
