456 DR. J. S. HOWERBANK ON [JunC 5, 



Mr. Du Bois, with whom I was hunthig last season in the Amaswazi 

 country, and who knows that part of Africa perhaps better than any 

 other man, informs me that a variety of the Buffalo, smaller and 

 with a red tinge on its skin, used to exist along the Bomba hills ; 

 and in fact I saw such a skin brought in for sale by one of the 

 natives. The Hon. W. H. Drummond, in his book on the Large 

 Game of South-eastern Africa, says, p. 33, " A herd of Buffalo, 

 or, more correctly speaking, several herds, that exist in a district 

 known as the Umbeka, on the north-east of Zululand, are famed as 

 having a tinge of red in their colour, and as being smaller and more 

 dangerous than any others." 



June 5, 1877. 

 Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. 

 The following papers were read : — 



1. Description of five new Species of Sponges discovered by 

 A. B. Meyer on the Philippine Islands and New Guinea. 

 By the late J. S. Bowerbank, F.R.S., F.Z.S.» 



[Eeceived May 14, 1876.] 



1. Ophlitospongia meyert, sp. uov. 



Sponge fistulous ; pedicel short and stout. Surface very rugged 

 and tuberculous. Oscula numerous, dispersed within the cloacal 

 cavity. Pores inconspicuous. Dermal membrane spiculous ; ten- 

 sion-spicula acuate, dispersed or subfasciculate, large and stout, same 

 size as those of the skeleton ; retentive spicula bidentate equiancho- 

 rate, very minute and slender, denticuli long, apices obtuse, few in 

 number, dispersed. Skeleton : Fibre rigid, stout and abundantly 

 spiculous ; rete irregular and open ; spicula acnate, and a few ace- 

 rate, stout and rather long ; fibres profusely armed with stout at- 

 tenuato-acuate basally and apically spined internal defensive spicula, 

 projected at nearly right angles and in all directions from the fibres. 

 Interstitial membranes spiculous ; spicula same as those of the der- 

 mal membrane. Gemmules membranous, spherical or oval, black 

 and opaque. 



' Communicated to the Secretary by Dr. A. B. Meyer, with the subjoined 

 remarks : — 



" The enclosed paper of the late Dr. Bowerbank on fire new sponges from 

 the Philippines and New Guinea was finished June 1876, and was intended by 

 the author for the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society. He sent the paper 

 over to me for inspection ; and I returned it, after having added a few notes. 

 He then became ill and died, without having been able to forward the paper to 

 your address. Dr. Bowerbank's family now return the paper to me, and I 

 forward it to you with the hope that the Society may accept it." 



