Rev. A. M. Norman on the Genus Haliphysema. 273 
him with respect to Gastrophysema, and thus deprive him of 
the pleasure he experiences in the art of “happy despatch.” 
I thoroughly indorse Mr. Kent’s argument. I have several 
two-celled, and some three-celled, examples of true Lagene in 
my collection ; are new genera to be created for them? A 
Greenland Nodosarian (Dentalina pauperata, Parker and 
Jones) has much more commonly one chamber only than two 

should manufacture, and often immediately afterwards proceed to destroy, 
innumerable genera and species. -We already, without this sort of thing, 
have only too much useless synonymy. As an example of Haeckel’s 
treatment of the calcareous sponges take our poor little friend Grantia 
compressa, a species which, until the advent of the Professor of Zoology 
at Jena, we all thought we knew. Behold the atlas which Haeckel has 
laid upon this miserable little creature’s shoulders to bear—1l. Sycariwm 
compressum, 2. Artynas compressus, 3, Sycidium compressum, 4. Artynium 
compressum, 5. Sycocystis compressa, 6. Artynella compressa, 7. Syco- 
phyllum compressum, 8. Artynophyllum compressum, 9. Sycometra com- 
pressa, 10. Sycum lingua, 11. Sycarium rhopalodes, 12. Artynas rhopa- 
lodes, 13. Artynella rhopalodes, 14. Dyssycum clavigerum, 15. Sycophyllum 
lobatum, 16. Sycurus compressus, 17. Syconella compressa, 18. Sycothamnus 
compressus, 19. Sycinula compressa, 20. Sycodendron compressum, 21. 
Sycandra foliacea, 22. Sycandra pennigera, 23. Sycandra clavigera, 24. 
Sycandra rhopalodes, 25, Sycandra lobata, 26. Sycandra polymorpha, 27. 
Sycortis compressa! The first fifteen of these names were established in 
the ‘Prodromus eines Systems der Kalkschwimme;’ but in his ‘ Die 
Kalkschwiimme’ he knocked upon the head eleven out of the fifteen 
generic names just before coined, but immediately proceeded to construct 
twelve more names to take their place. This done, he again bowls his 
nine-pins over, and leaves us with a twenty-eight-synonymed Sycandra 
compressa, which he would have us accept asthe mother of all his still- 
born children. I am sorry that we cannot even oblige him in that. 
Grantia compressa is the name under which our old lady was baptized ; 
and that name has been, is, and will be the honoured name she loves to 
own; but if she changes her name at all, it must be to that of Artynes, of 
Gray, of which she is the type. But the Professor has not even yet 
done. At page 381 he favours us with “Zweite Abtheilung. Kiinstliches 
System der Kalkschwamme.” “ Kiinstliches” indeed! Here we find I 
know not how many subgenera formed for the ‘ generic varieties ;”’ and 
the much-enduring Grantia compressa is made to undergo the further 
torture of having its disjecta membra thrown, in the form of six “ sub- 
species,” into each of the nine following new and euphonious “ sub- 
genera” — Sycurandra, Syconellandra, Sycandrarium, Sycocystandra, 
Sycothamnella, Sycinulandra, Sycodenandrum, Sycandrophyllum, Sycan- 
drometra. The magician waves hiswand: “ Behold! Grantia compressa 
might be, can be, 7s divided into fifty-four (6x9) subspecies; and then 
do not forget my ‘connexive Varietat,’ which makes fifty-five. It is 
done! Veni, vidi, vici!!” We gladly leave with him the victory ; 
but surely a man of Prof. Haeckel’s genius might more worthily employ 
his time. Had his demonstration been that fifty-five forms which had 
been named and placed by other naturalists as so many species in twenty- 
seven genera, were nothing more than the unstable modifications of one 
type, and, as possessing no constant character, must be brought together in 
one so-called species, a benefit would have been conferred upon science. 
