570 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGES. 
from the interest attaching to the types represented. At the same time no form 
has been discovered in this family of sufficient distinctness from the known genera 
to rank as the representative of a new generic type. Those extraordinary forms 
allied to Esperia, with which the researches of Professor G. 0. Sars, Sir Wyville 
Thomson, Mr. Carter, and Professor 0. Schmidt have made us familiar, viz., Chondro- 
clcidia and Cladorrhiza , are present to the number of at least nine species, of which 
three Cladorrhiza and as many Chondroeladice are certainly new 
to science ; among the points of interest which they present not 
the least is the fact that the majority of the species do not exhibit 
the same shrubby form as the original species to which these 
names were applied, but a shape the peculiarities of which led 
Professor Schmidt to found the genus Crinorrhiza for a specimen 
belonging to this division of the Desmacidines obtained off Bar- 
bados. Crinorrhiza has a relatively small, subglobular body, 
from the equatorial aspect of which radiate in a horizontal direction 
a number of strong spicular tufts ; a central root may also be 
present. While, however, Professor Schmidt considered these, 
certainly remarkable, external characteristics of sufficient import- 
ance to justify the erection of a genus, the Challenger specimens 
show that the spiculation of the five species which exhibit them 
belongs to two distinct types, the one that of Chondrocladia , the 
other that of Cladorrhiza. It therefore becomes necessary (having 
regard to the superior weight which must be admitted to attach 
to spicular characters in contrast to those derived from the 
external form) to abandon the genus Crinorrhiza, as constituting a 
mere growth-type, comparable to the ‘ artificial genera,’ Ampho- 
riscus, Olynthus, &c., recognized by Professor Haeckel among the 
Calcarea. Of the more familiar genera Esperia has nine or ten 
species, of which probably one-lialf are new to science. Esperia 
rotalis, Bowerbank, is remarkable for ranging from Britain to Port 
Jackson ; a new species from the Cape is distinguished by its 
immense tricurvate and biliamate spicules. Alebion is represented 
by some new species in which the ‘ bipocillate ’ spicule attains a 
size and beauty hitherto unknown. Myxilla is rich in individuals, but there is a sameness 
about the characters of the species which contrasts strongly with the manifold forms 
assumed by Esperia ; a new species from Japan will be termed Myxilla japonica. 
“ A type characterised by a smooth acuate skeletal and an equianchorate parenchyma 
spicule, to which the name Amphilectus, Yosmaer, has been restricted, produces one of 
the few new Monaxonida possessing a striking external habit. Amphilectus challengeri 
Fig. 187 . — Amphilectus chal- 
lenged, Ridley, as seen from 
the front, reduced to one-lialf 
natural size. Molucca Sea, 
825 fathoms. 
