ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 457 



up. In 1862 he formed the genus Camimis, which appeared to be one 

 of the Tetractinellidse, although it had not the characteristic 

 tetraradiate spicules. He is now able to show that this is not a hypo- 

 thesis merely. Specimens lately received from Dr. Kohler, who 

 collected them at Sark and sent them to the author with the inquiry 

 whether they belonged to the species G. osculosus, were remarkable 

 in that a few of them had four-rayed spicules, the characters of 

 which are described in detail, and their significance discussed. The 

 result seems to be that Caminus affords the proof that by the dis- 

 appearance of what was previously regarded as an important ordinal 

 character, a new form, which is to be distinguished as a genus, 

 becomes developed. It is possible, therefore, that Aneorina is 

 similarly a good genus, and, at any rate, the author is justified in his 

 belief that work with such ideas as he has had is good work. 



Nervous and Muscular*Systems of Horny Sponges.* — Dr. R. v. 

 Lendenfeld gives an account of Euspongia anfractuosa, which differs in 

 some particulars from the ordinary bath-sponge [E. officinalis) ; the 

 fine membrane which extends from the tips of the horny fibres consists 

 of parallel spindle-shaped cells, which are set perpendicularly to the 

 outer surface of the sponge ; they end in extraordinarily fine tips ; the 

 protoplasm contains small but highly and doubly refractive granules, 

 imbedded in a singly refractive substance ; the granules are so 

 arranged as to give the appearance of a kind of transverse striation. 

 The author believes that these are muscle-cells, intermediate in 

 structure between smooth and transversely striated fibres; at the 

 margins of the grooves the membrane suddenly becomes twice or thrice 

 as thick, and does not here consist of sjnndle-shaped cells, cell- 

 boundaries are no longer distinct and the substance is granular. 

 Fibres are given off laterally from this thickening, and superiorly 

 there are spindle-shaped sensory cells, which call to mind those found 

 by Jickeli in the Hydroida. The thickening may be described as 

 consisting of ganglion-cells, the contours of which are not distinct, 

 while the fibres are nerves. The author homologizes these with the 

 circular nerves of the cycloneurous Medusae (Hydromedusae), and 

 thinks that their affinity with the Cnidaria is closer than is now 

 generally admitted. 



Oscarella lobularis (0. Schmidt) var. caerulea-f — Herr F. E. 

 Schulze, in exhibiting some living specimens with gemmules both in 

 process of formation and just cast off, remarks that this askeletal 

 sponge produces at times, and especially when the water is infected by 

 noxious matter, as decomposition gases and the like, free-swimming 

 spheroidal bladders, the external membrane of which, though com- 

 monly possessing a similar structure to that of the parent body, 

 differs therefrom considerably, since the exhalent oscula of the 

 ciliated chambers in the gastric cavity, sometimes spheroidal and 

 provided with special apertures of exit, terminate by a wide opening, 

 whereby the form appears no longer spheroidal, but hemispherical. 



* SB. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1885, pp. 1015-20. See also Ann. and Mag 

 Nat. Hist., xvii. (1886) pp. 372-7. 



t SB. Gesell. Naturf. Frexmde Berlin, 1885, pp. 183-4. 



Ser. 2.— Vol. VI. 2 H 



