DENDY—REPORT ON THE CALCAREOUS SPONGES i) 
resembling in appearance the yellow bodies of the mesogloea (but more variable in size). 
In preparations stained first with borax carmine and subsequently with picro-indigo- 
carmine the cytoplasm of the ovum stains indigo-green, the nucleus much the same and 
the nucleolus (?) brighter green ; whereas, in the same sections, the nuclei of the epithelial 
cells and those of the amocebocytes (? collencytes) are all stained bright red. As we shall 
see presently the yellow bodies in the mesoglcea also become stained green by this 
method. 
Leucosolenia gardinert is evidently nearly related to L. depressa, Dendy [1891], 
from Port Phillip, Australia, but differs in the proportions of the spicules. Both are 
also evidently closely related to the common European species Leucosolenia (Clathrina) 
coriacea, of which I have already [Dendy, 1905] described a variety from Ceylon 
(Leucosolenia coriacea, var. ceylonensis). Possibly all should be regarded merely as 
varieties of the same species. 
Register Nos., Localities, de, cxx. 7, cxx. 11, both from Salomon (Chagos 
Archipelago), 10—14 fathoms. 
The Yellow Bodies of Leucosolenia gardinert (cxx. 11). 
These bodies (Plate 8, fig. 3, yb) were subjected to very careful examination™ with 
a view to determining their real nature. They appear to be insoluble in water, alcohol, 
xylol, ether and hydrochloric acid (5°/,), and even boiling with dilute hydrochloric acid 
for several minutes appears to have little or no effect upon them. Cold caustic potash 
(5 °/,) has little effect upon them, except that they became very transparent and perhaps 
somewhat swollen. When boiled with caustic potash of the same strength, however, they 
slowly disappear. 
Iodine, dissolved in potassium iodide, causes them to assume a deep orange colour. 
On adding strong sulphuric acid the colour deepens to brown and then black, and the 
bodies break up into minute black particles without showimg any blue coloration. 
Schultze’s solution also gives no blue colour. 
From these observations I conclude that the bodies are certainly organic but that 
they contain neither starch nor cellulose and are not of vegetable origin. 
Their staining reactions are very characteristic. They stain well with eosin but 
rather faintly with hematoxylin (Ehrlich’s logwood) and borax carmine. With borax 
carmine followed by picro-indigo-carmine they stain bright green, while the ordinary 
tissue nuclei of course stain red. 
Sometimes they stain uniformly and appear almost homogeneous in structure, but 
more often they exhibit a distinctly vesicular character, showing a thin wall with 
granular or reticulate contents apparently collected on its inner surface, as if coagulated 
or precipitated there. Thus they often appear like spherical nuclei with a deep-staining 
chromatin network and a very distinct nuclear membrane, but no surrounding cytoplasm. 
Their staining reactions, however, are not those of typical nuclei. 
The most probable explanation of these yellow bodies seems to be that they are 
* All these observations were made upon spirit-preserved material. 
