374 report— 1879. 



and by give off other buds, so that the whole has a remarkably branched condition. 

 The tail of the bud (i.e. its distal point) is early formed, and soon becomes fur- 

 nished with two long cirri. Indeed, it would seem that in such a case the tail 

 and the anus were more useful than the head, the eyes, and the finished buccal 

 and pharyngeal apparatus. 



The number of buds seems to be indefinite, the data at present being insufficient 

 to enable me to fix a limit. Some of the larger fragments show nine or ten buds, 

 yet they are evidently far from being complete. The absence of a head leaves 

 great uncertainty on the latter point, and, if it existed at all, it could only have 

 been in the siliceous stem of the sponge, which had been torn off. 



Two female buds were found. One of these was still attached by its pedicle of 

 four segments to the parent-stock. These intermediate segments somewhat resem- 

 bled those of ordinary buds, only they were more slender. All had rudimentary 

 lateral cirri and setigerous processes. The diverticulum of the alimentary canal 

 proceeded from the main trunk in the ordinary way, passed through the anterior 

 segments of the bud, and became lost in the opacity caused by the ova. The head 

 of the bud is bilobate, and furnished dorsally with a large reddish-brown eye on 

 each side, and a still larger pair, of similar shape (somewhat circular) and colour, on 

 the ventral surface. These eyes, while useful for both dorsal and ventral vision, 

 approach so near the margins that they are also available for lateral sight. The head 

 terminates laterally in two short cirri and a setigerous process furnished with a spine. 

 The body of the female bud is somewhat fusiform, gradually increasing in 

 diameter till full breadth is attained, and, after a nearly cylindrical region, dimi- 

 nishing towards the tail, though to a less degree than anteriorly. The entire body, 

 from the middle of the second segment backwards, as well as the bases of the feet, 

 is filled with ova, which in each case shows germinal vesicle and spot. The 

 anterior segments are provided with bristles of the same type as the parent-stock, 

 only the terminal appendage is more differentiated. None of the long simple 

 bristles are apparent in this fragmentary example. 



Exactly opposite the point from which the pedicle of the foregoing bud sprang 

 is another small bud, consisting of upwards of a dozen segments. Moreover, in the 

 same specimen a pair of young buds occur opposite each other. In these cases the 

 segment of the intestine of the parent-stock, from which the diverticulum proceeds, 

 is shorter than the rest. It would seem that the bud arises opposite a foot, and 

 there is no evidence that a bud ever arises between two (successive) feet. The 

 shortening of the intestinal segment may be due to the appropriation of the sub- 

 stance of both it and the body-wall in the production of the new bud. 



A free female bud, again, occurred in one of the basal canals of the sponge. It 

 closely agrees with the description of the foregoing specimen, except in the larger 

 garnet-tinted eyes, and the presence of beautiful tufts of long simple bristles in each 

 foot. Its length is about 9 mm., and its breadth, including the latter, is rather 

 more than 2 mm. There are twenty-nine segments ; but the condition of the tail 

 is open to doubt. Dorsally each segment has a slender and distinctly-jointed cirrus. 

 Beneath the foregoing is a dense tuft of long translucent simple bristles, with broad 

 flattened tips, after the fashion of the straight Roman swords, but marked at the 

 tip by two peculiar longitudinal processes, and sometimes the end assumes a fim- 

 briated appearance. The setigerous region beneath is short and conical, having 

 superiorly the spine and inferiorly the bristles, which differ from those of the parent- 

 stock, in showing a more evident differentiation at the junction of the terminal 

 process. Ventrally is a tongue-shaped cirrus, which nearly reaches the tip of the 

 setigerous region. The entire body is filled with ova, which likewise occupy the 

 feet, almost to their tips ; the first segment and the extremity of the tail (which is 

 apparently in process of regeneration) alone being devoid of them. Some of the 

 feet, indeed, aasume a bulk four or five times larger than the others, from distention 

 with ova. The latter, apparently, have embryos internally. 



Amongst the tangled masses in the channels of the sponge was a fragment of 

 the posterior end of a form which differed from either of the foregoing. The feet, 

 which are well-marked and long, have dorsally a slightly convex margin ; ventrally 

 the outline is also somewhat convex at the base, but curves upward toward the 



