GENE HA j SPECIES, &C. 
Sjjong. 11 
colour by the latter, when treated with sulphuric acid, appears to favour 
the view of their being formed by the protoplasm of the sponge-cell; 
they appear not to be colourless parasitic Algae ; starch is not found in 
connection with them. The importance of the green matter to the 
vital powers cannot be great, and it is not necessary to the formation of 
amyloid matter. 
Spongilla fluviatilis stated by J. H. Hunt, J. Cincinn. Soc. v. p. 194, to 
have been found “ in an office aquarium ” in Cincinnati. 
Spongilla fluviatilis in the rivers Rhine, Main, Saale, and Tauber ; 
Leydig, Verh. Yer. Rheinl. xxxviii. pp. 150 & 151. 
Spongilla fluviatilis , var. japonica , from Tokio, Japan. Its characters 
pointed out by F. Hilgendorf, SB. nat. Fr. 1882, p. 2G. 
Spongilla lieberhuehni and contecta, Noll, (13) p. 175. Growth 
described ; the form is affected by the character of the surface to which 
the sponges attach themselves. 
Spongilla lacustris, auctt., (6) p. 6, figs. 4, 6, 7, & 10. Is widely distri- 
buted in European Russia, and found in the Caucasus, Siberia, and Kamts- 
chatka. Colour, form, structure, and spicules fully described ; tables of 
the proportions of the latter are given ; the skeleton spicules vary in 
proportions from a maximum of '25 by *01 mm. in Siberia, to a minimum 
of T14 by -002 mm. in the Gulf of Finland. 
Meyenia. 3 species from Russia described by Dybowski (6) ; tables 
of the size of the spicules are given in each case ; viz., No. 1, p. 13, figs. 3 
& 9, from South Russia and Livonia; perhaps = M. fluviatilis. No. 2, 
p. 15, figs. 5, 8, & 11, from Esthonia, the Dnieper, and Poland; perhaps 
= Epliydatia muelleri. No. 3, p. 18, figs. 1 & 2, represented by a var. 
from Kamtschatka, and another from the province Minsk, West Russia ; 
also some doubtful specimens from the Caucasus and Georgia. The 
skeleton spicules of var. a show all transitions from smoothness to the 
spined character; both conditions may occur in the same fibre. 
Parmula browni, (5) p. 367, pi. xvi. fig. 12; “microcell structure” of 
crust of gemmule. 
Carterella latitenta, tubisperma , Potts. The varieties of the cirrous 
appondagos of thoir gommules figured by Carter, (3) pi. xiv, figs. 1-5, 
7-10, compared with those of the Polyzoon, Pectinatella , and the dif- 
ferences in the different species of the genus pointed out. The birotu- 
late spicules in the genus show a variation in length similar to that 
seen in Heteromeyenia. 
Desmacidinid^e. 
Group Esperina , Carter. That author, (2) p. 288, discusses its characters. 
Esperia , Carter, (2) p. 293, criticises Bowerbank’s descriptions of the 
anchorate spicules. He calls attention to the occurrence of a small equi- 
anchorate in some species. He considers Iiymeniacidon macilenta , Bower- 
bank, to be identical with Rhaphiodesma floreum, id., and states that 
Esperia socialis, Carter, = E. immilis, Schmidt. He finds nothing in the 
spiculation of the Sponges to indicate more than two distinct species of 
Esperia, as described in Bowerbank’s British Sponges, viz., Rhaphiodesma 
floreum and R. lingua. 
