1870.] Zoology. 573 



the coloration is clue to Haemoglobin as in the cases of Molluscs, 

 Insects, Crustacea, and Vermes with red blood, investigated by- 

 Mr. Bay Lankester. Mr. Morse's proposition to classify Brachio- 

 poda with Yerines deserves full consideration, but we shall look 

 for some solid reasons in the memoir which he promises on the 

 subject. 



New Sponges. — Sponges continue to occupy a great deal the 

 attention of naturalists. Dr. Perceval Wright, Mr. Carter, Mr. 

 Charles Stewart, and others, have lately described new genera and 

 species. Mr. W. S. Kent, of the British Museum, who two months 

 since made an expedition to the coasts of Portugal in the yacht of 

 Mr, Marshall Hall, has described three new species (two belonging 

 to new genera) of that very important and interesting group, the 

 silicious sponges or Yitrea of Professor Wyville Thomson. The 

 Vitrea are represented by the notorious Hyalonema, or glass-rope 

 sponge ; by Euplectella, the beautiful lace-sponge ; and by Professor 

 Thomson's new genus, Holtenia. Mr. Kent would recognize Dr. 

 J. E. Gray's division of the Corallispongia in preference to that of 

 Yitrea proposed by Professor Wyville Thomson. In describing a 

 new species allied to that author's Holtenia Carpenteri, he points 

 out that the genus Holtenia must give place to Pheronema, previ- 

 ously proposed by that most distinguished of American naturalists, 

 Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia. There appears to be no doubt that the 

 sponge described under this name by Dr. Leidy is generically iden- 

 tical with Wyville Thomson's subsequently described Holtenia. Mr. 

 Kent's new species is called Pheronema Grayi, and was obtained by 

 him in the deep sea off the coast of Portugal. Two other inter- 

 esting vitreous sponges were also detected, and have been fully 

 described by Mr. Kent. The Boyal Society assisted Mr. Kent in 

 the outlay necessary for dredging apparatus, &c, and these new 

 sponges are among the first of the fruits of his voyage which he 

 has made known. The Society has done well to entrust some of its 

 funds to this promising naturalist ; and zoological science is much 

 indebted to Mr. Marshall Hall for using his yacht for its advance- 

 ment. 



Batlujbius and the Coecoliths. — The organism which Professor 

 Huxley described two years ago as being so widely spread in the 

 ooze of the ocean bottom, consisting of a simple ramified network 

 of protoplasm, has been recognized and fully established by no less 

 an authority than Professor Haeckel, of Jena. Professor Haeckel 

 gives figures of the protoplasmic network, and then discusses the 

 propriety of associating with this organism the Coecoliths and 

 Coccospheres, as Huxley has done. He does not arrive at definite 

 conclusions on this point; but re-figures all the various forms 

 of Coecoliths, Cyatholiths, and Discoliths described by Huxley. 

 Haeckel would at present definitely establish Bathybius on the 



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