372 PROF. E. A. MINCHIN ON THE BRITISH [DeC. 13, 



(d) List of Specimens exmnined*. 



(a) From Canon Norman's Collection. 



1. Dried sj)ecimens collected at Scarborough by Bean, sent to 



Haeckel for examination, and returned by him with the 

 following label in his handwriting : — 

 " Ascandra complicata H. 

 " {Spongia com2}licata Montagu). 

 " Scarborough (Bean)." 

 These specimens were of the utmost importance, as they 

 showed that the small monaxons supposed to be absent in 

 Ascandra coviplicata H. and present in A. pinus H, were 

 simply overlooked by Haeckel in the specimens referred 

 by him to the former species (see text-fig. 92, figg, 3_/-«, 

 p. 367). 



2. Dried specimens labelled ^^Lei(,cosoleniaGontorta,Guernsej," 



in Bowerbank's handwriting. According to information 

 given me by Canon Norman, the specimens seen by me 

 were not sent to Haeckel, but are of the same lot as the 

 type sent to him, and are equally types of Ascandra 

 contorta H. My preparation shows typical spicules of 

 Leucosolenia complicata mingled with spicules of Glathrina 

 coriacea. These two species often grow in the closest 

 proximity ; and I have a series of sections of Glathrina 

 coriacea showing tubes of Leucosolenia complicata growing 

 side by side with those of the Glathrina. 



(b) From the British Museum. 



3. Bowerbank Coll., No. 988. Seven dried specimens stuck 



on a card, and labelled in Bowerbank's handwriting 

 " Leucosolenia contorta, Guernsey." These specimens are 

 the types of Bowerbank's species L. contorta, figured by 

 him in Mon. Brit. Spong. pi. iii. figg. 5-10. One specimen 

 is much larger than the others ; it is stuck at the top of 

 the card, over the middle. The other six specimens are 

 arranged in two vertical rows, three in each row, along the 

 two sides of the card. Of the seven specimens I have 

 examined six, that is to say, all except the right lower 

 specimen, which is very small. The large specimen 

 (Bowerbank's fig. 7) is a Glathrina sp. which a,grees with 

 Haeckel's Ascandra contorta in spiculation, except for the 

 absence of monaxons, which I have not been able to find. 

 The five smaller specimens examined by me are one and 

 all of them unmistakable specimens of Leucosolenia com- 

 plicata, but being very young colonies the spiculation is 

 sometimes rather aberrant, especially in the triradiates ; 

 the three types of monaxons, however, show the specific 

 characters quite invariably. The spicules are generally 



* 111 tlie lists of specimens enumerated by me, I count only public specimens, so 

 to speak, without mentioning the manj' examples I have studied in mj' own or other 

 private collections. ^ 



