THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



" per litora spargite museum, 



Naiades, et circuni ritreos considite fontes: 

 Polliee virgineo teneros h'lc carpite flores : 

 Floribus et pictum, divse, replete canistrum. 

 At Tos, o Nymphse Craterides, ite sub undas 

 Ite, recurvato variata corallia triinco 

 Vellite musoosis e rupibus, et milii conchas 

 Ferte, Dese pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo." 



N.Parthenii Giannetiaaii Eol. 1. 



No. 109. JANUARY 1877. 



I. — On Stauronema, a new Genus of Fossil Hexactmellid 

 Sponges^ with a Description of its two Species^ S. Carter! 

 and S. lobata. By W. J. Sollas, B.A., F.G.S., &c. 



[Plates I.-V.] 



Oscar Schmidt's remark, " Die Behandlung der fossilen 

 Schwamme durch die Geognosten und Palaontologen ist eine 

 grausliche," has the merit of being strictly true, though in 

 fairness it ought to be added that the geologists and palgeon- 

 tologists are not wholly to blame for this treatment, since 

 most of their work was done before Schmidt's books had been 

 written, before the Hexactinellidse and Lithistidge (which would 

 have thrown light on their labours) had been discovered, and 

 at a time, one may add, when the sponges in general were the 

 outcasts of the animal kingdom. 



To understand aright the fossil sponges, one must obtain a 

 thorough knowledge first of the minute structure of these 

 bodies themselves, and next of the structure and classification 

 of existing forms. The older observers were without the 

 means of acquiring either of these essentials ; they conse- 

 quently, in their attempts at a classification of fossil sponges, 

 were compelled to fall back upon external characters alone, with 

 the addition of what internal features might chance to be 

 revealed by a happy fracture ; and since, as we now know, 

 different genera of sponges may assume the same form, and 

 diverse forms may belong to the same genus or even to the 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xix. 1 



