THE ANNALS 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[FIFTH SERIES. ] 
No. 4. APRIL 1878. 

XXX.—On the Genus Haliphysema, with Description of seve- 
ral Forms apparently allied to it. By the Rev. A. M. 
Norman, M.A. 
[Plate XVI. ] 
IT is now many years since Haliphysema first attracted my 
attention ; and well do I remember the extreme interest felt 
at finding the type of H. ramulosum, which was dredged off the 
Guernsey coast, attachedto a dead Gorgonia verrucosa, which 
came up laden with a forest of treasures growing on it. 
The genus is now attracting considerable attention; and as 
I cannot entirely agree with some of the views either of Mr. 
Carter, on the one side, or of Prof. Haeckel on the other, I 
propose to give my reasons for dissenting from certain points 
which they hold with regard to the systematic position of 
these animals, or the relationship which exists between the 
known forms. 
I feel the more called upon to state my opinion upon the 
questions at issue because I have undertaken to edit the fourth 
and last, posthumous volume of my late friend Dr. Bower- 
bank’s ‘ Monograph of the British Spongiade.’ It will be 
necessary, in the first place, briefly to trace the outlines of 
what has been written upon Haliphysema before entering upon 
an investigation of the views of different authors with respect 
to the species of this and allied genera which have fallen under 
their observation. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. i. 18 
