ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
611 
the first — H. simplicia — the Ascon-persons either remain solitary and do 
not fuse or they form simple colonies in which the component Ascon- 
persons may branch but never form complex anastomoses nor give off 
radial tubes, so that the individuality of the different members of the 
colony is easily recognizable ; the H. reticulata have a sponge-colony 
■which forms a more or less complex network of branching and anasto- 
mosing tubes, so that it is no longer possible to distinguish the individual 
Ascon-persons of which the colony is composed ; in the H. radiata, or 
third group, the sponge consists of a single central Ascon-tube, from 
which secondary tubes are budded off radially. 
Leucosolenia is the only genus recognized in the order ; fourteen Vic- 
torian species are described, in most cases fully, and three are regarded 
as doubtful. 
Synute pulchella.* — Dr. A. Dendy has a preliminary notice of a new 
genus of Calcareous Sponges from Port Phillip Heads, which may be 
imagined as a colony of the Sycon genus TJte , in which the component 
members have become fused together completely, so that the whole 
colony forms a single vallate mass, in which the individuals can only be 
recognized externally by their oscula ; there is a thick common cortex 
formed chiefly of huge oxeote spicules. 
System of Calcareous Sponges. - ]* — Dr. E. v. Lendenfeld publishes 
a revised scheme of classification of the Calcareous Sponges ; a new 
Adriatic Syconid, the chambers of which open by groups into the oscular 
tube, is made the type of a new sub-family of Sycanthinas, while the Syco- 
nids with unjointed tube-skeleton form the new sub-family Amphoriscinm. 
Sponge-Fauna of the Red Sea4— Prof. C, Keller, who has made an 
exhaustive investigation of the sponge-fauna of the Eed Sea, finds that 
fifty-three genera are represented by eighty-eight species, fifty-four of 
which belong to the Monactinellidae. Among these the Chalinidae are 
best represented ; the Eenieridae are remarkable for the new genus 
Dasiuria. It is remarkable that there should be no representative of 
the widely-spread genus Geodia. No Hexactinellids are yet known from 
the Eed Sea. The chorographical relations of the fauna are worked out, 
and there is a discussion of the vertical distribution, and its influence on 
the mechanical construction of the Sponge-body. He finds that purely 
mechanical characters will explain many of the morphological pecu- 
liarities of the sponge -organism — not only the necessity of primary and 
connecting fibres, but of spongin structures in general. The mechanical 
cause which led to the formation and successive development of Monacti- 
nellids and horny sponges is the influence of the pressure of moving 
water. It would be interesting to make observations on the thickness 
and elasticity of fibres in a given species, and to correlate them with 
variations in locality and depth. « 
Protozoa. 
Dictyochida.§ — Herr A. Borgert regards these forms not as Eadio- 
larians, as Haeckel, Hertwig, and others do, but as an order of Mastigo- 
* “ Roy. Soc. Victoria,” 1891, pp. 1-6. 
f SB. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, c. (1891) pp. 4-19. 
