THE ANNALS •KSD MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. [FOURTH SERIES.] No. 30. JUNE 1870. XLIV. — On Haliphysema ramulosa {Bowerhank) and the Sponge-spicules of Polytrema. By H. J. Caetee, F.R.S. &c. In the last Number of the 'â– Annals/ p. 320, I have suggested that Dr. Bowerbank's Haliphysema raimdosa might be a branched form of SquamuUna scoprda^ and then have sub-mitted the question whether there might not be some connexion between the arborescent form of Polytrema and H. ramulosa^ on account of the presence of sponge-spicules, stated by Dr. Carpenter (Introduct. Study of Foraminifera, p. 236) to appa-rently radiate from the extremities of the former. I am now, through the kindness of my friends Dr. J. E. Gray and Dr. Carpenter respectively, enabled to answer these questions definitively. In the first place. Prof. Oscar Schmidt has transmitted to Dr. Gray, for the British Museum, among many others, two slides bearing respectively specimens of Haliphysema Tuma-nowiczii and H. ramulosa (Bowerbank) , Florida ; and in the spiculiferous character of the extremities they closely resemble Squamidina scopula ; but, in the absence of the '' pedestal," and other points, it is not clear to me that they are identical in species with S. scojjula and S. various respectively. Still, that there can be no doubt of the existence of a di-chotomously branched species of the same kind of organism as S. scopula, Prof. Schmidt's mounted specimen testifies. Be-sides, this able naturalist promises, in a forthcoming notice, which is already printed, certain observations on the subject, showing that neither Haliphysema Tumanoiciczii nor H. ra-mulosa can be sponges, although Prof. Schmidt is not at pre-sent prepared to state exactly what the real nature of these organisms may be. Thus the branched form of Haliphysema (Bowerbank) is Ann. dc Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol.\. ' 27
BioStor
