Rey. A. M. Norman on the Genus Haliphysema. 275 
by a short thick pedicel. Pedicel solid, cylindrical, scarcely 
half as long as body. Body-cavity spindle-shaped. Mouth- 
opening simple. ‘The extraneous bodies which incrust the 
exoderm consisting on the lower (aboral) half chiefly of sand- 
grains, on the upper (oral) half by preference of spicules of 
different sponges, both siliceous and calcareous, spicules ar- 
ranged oralwards.”’ 
G. dithalamium. “ Body of person, taken as a whole, long 
and club-shaped, divided by a median constriction into two 
chambers lying one over the other; attached by means of a 
short cylindrical pedicel. Pedicel placed upon a disk-shaped 
widening base. At the opposite (upper) end a simple, cir- 
cular mouth-opening. ‘The uppermost (distal or oral) cham- 
ber elliptical or egg-shaped, one third larger each way than 
the under round chamber. Pedicel and foot-disk solid. The 
cavities of the chambers joined by a narrow neck (sipho). 
In the aboral chamber (Bruthéhle) the ova are developed. A 
ciliated spiral is found in the oral chamber near the mouth- 
opening. Hxtraneous bodies which incrust the exoderm 
composed on the under half, for the most part, of sand-grains 
and fragments of spicula; on the upper half (in the wall of the 
second or largest chamber), of long spicula of different species 
of sponges; these stand out on all sides, and have their points 
directed forwards.”’ 
I cannot think that the fact of the pedicel in the forms 
described by Haeckel being characterized as solid, while in 
those examined by Carter it is hollow, is of any consequence. 
Carter’s observations were quite correct as regards dead spe- 
cimens ; but he himself, in cutting a living H. ramulosum across 
the pedicel, observed the escape of the sarcode or syncytium 
with which it was filled; and I take it that all that Haeckel 
means, and all that he figures, is that the pedicel is filled with 
such syncytium, whereas the chambers have a hollow cavity. 
In drying, the syncytium, shrinking up against the pseudo- 
skeleton of the surrounding wall, leaves the pedicel, as ob- 
served by Carter, hollow; and the cavity of the body will, in 
that condition, extend from the mouth-opening to the plano- 
convex disk of attachment. 
I have given Haeckel’s characters of primordiale and 
dithalamium, which will speak for themselves. Without fur- 
ther evidence these scarcely appear to be of specific or even 
varietal importance. 
2. Haliphysema ramulosum, Bow. 
1866. Halyphysema ramulosa, Bowerbank, Monog. Brit. Sponges, vol. ii. 
p. 79, and vol, iii, (1874) pl. xiii. fig. 1. 
