428 Dr. B, von Lendenfeld on the Chalininse. 



LXII. — Mr. Dendy on the Chalininse. 

 By B. VON Lendenfeld. 



My friend Mr. A. Dendj has recently published a paper 

 entitled " The New System of Chalininse, with some Brief 

 Observations upon Zoological Nomenclature " (Ann. & Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. November 1887, p. 826). Every reader of it will 

 probably have been as surprised as 1 was to find that this 

 paper is simply a review of an account of the Australian 

 Chalinina3 recently published by me (' Zoologische Jahr- 

 biicher,' vol. ii. 1887), as ray name does not occur in the title. 



Mr. Dendy draws attention to some mi-stakes in my paper, 

 for which I am much obhged, as his review will in this way 

 partly serve as a list of errata to my original essay, and thus 

 add to its utility. I hope that he has pretty well exhausted 

 the mistakes contained in it, as it produces the impression 

 that he looked for them with much trouble and as logomachy 

 is evidently not among Mr. Dendy's faults. 



A number of his statements, although made in a very con- 

 fident, dogmatic style, are highly controversial, and I should 

 be glad to make a few remarks upon these parts of Mr. 

 Dendy's review. 



Concerning the canal-system Mr. Dendy raises a doubt as 

 to the correctness of my drawing, because I do not describe 

 in the text every detail contained in the drawing. These 

 details are not essential, and I omitted to describe them (1) 

 because they are by no means common to all Chalinids, and 

 (2) because they are in the drawing. I hope he will reexamine 

 the type to which the drawing relates, which is under his care 

 at the British Museum, to settle this doubt of his. 



As to the apparent inconsistency involved in placing the 

 Gelliodinge and Bidley's Toxochalina in the Chalininse, and 

 therefore in the family Homorrhaphidse, I can only say that 

 such inconsistencies are unavoidable and are met with also in the 

 families Heterorrhaphidse and Desmacidonidee as established — 

 and, I think, with good reason, for it would be a mistake to 

 attach too much importance to the shape of the spicules — by 

 Bidley and Dendy (iteport on the ' Challenger ' Monaxo- 

 nida). The Heterorrhaphidee are characterized as possessing 

 differentiated microsclera, and yet Bidley and Dendy have 

 (/. c. p. 32) placed Rhizochalina in that family, although 

 there are no differentiated microsclera in this genus. The 

 Desmacidonidas are characterized by the possession of chelge, 

 and yet Bidley and Dendy place sponges in this family which 



