Mr. H. J. Carter on a Variety o/Spongilla Meyeni. 247 or part of a specimen of this species is known to exist in any museum. 10. Balcena cisai'ctica, the Black Whale of the whalers of the east coast of the United States of America, may be the same as B. nodosa. There is a skeleton in the Museum of the Aca- demy of Sciences, Philadelphia ; and it is probably a skeleton of this species that ^' is exposed to all weathers on the roof of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts." (See Agassiz, Rep. 1864-65.) How far the sjoecies indicated range beyond the habitats whence they were received is yet to be discovered and re- corded. No doubt their range is influenced by many local circumstances (peculiarities in the currents, and disposition of the food) that are not easily observed or understood. For example, Capt. Maury observes : — " The Sperm- Whale, ac- cording to the result of this chart, appears never to double the Cape of Good Hope. It doubles Cape Horn. Since this fish delights in warni water, shall we not expect to find off Cape Horn an under-current of warm water heavier with its salt?" (Maury, Whale-Charts, p. 267.) XXXII. — On a Variety of Spongilla Meyeni from the Exe, Devonshire. By H. J. Carter, F.R.S. &c. Spongilla Meyeni {Ephydatia, Gray)*, var. Parfitti, Carter. Massive, flat, more or less lobed, sessile, spreading. Colour greenish, yellowish. Texture friable. Structure reticulate. Seed-like bodies spheroidal, accumulated towards the base, largest about -^^ inch in diameter. Spicules of skeleton fusiform, slightly arched, acerate, abruptly pointed, largest -^ inch long ; of two kinds, smooth and spinous ; one-third of the largest thickly set with short vertical spines through- out, except towards the points. Spicules of seed-like body birotulate, -g-oVo inch long, more or less sparsely scattered throughout the wall of the seed-like body, wherein they are arranged vertically, with the outer rotule projecting a little beyond the amorphous (siliceous?) substance that chiefly keeps the whole together ; rotules deeply dentate, stellate, wider in diameter than the spicular shaft which unites them; shaft cylindrical, the same size throughout. Hab. River Exe, Devonshire ; Salmon-pool Weir, near Exeter. On a beam of wood over which the water falls. In masses attaining a maximum length of 1 foot, with 1;^ inch thick- ness (Mr. Parfitt). * Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. May 9, 1867, p. 550. 248 Mr. H. J. Carter on a Variety o/'Spongilla Meyeni. Ohs. This Spongilla chiefly differs from 8p. Meyeni of Bom- bay in the decidedly spinous character of one-third of its largest spicules, while about the same proportion in the Bombay spe- cies can be only termed " incipiently spinous." The excess in size of the elementary parts generally of the Bombay species over those of the variety in the river Exe amounts to nothing, specifically considered. But there is a much more decided difference between var. Parjitti and the birotulate English species termed Sp.jiuviatilis^ which also grows in the river Exe, inasmuch as the spicules of the skeleton in the latter are all smooth, the shaft of the birotules, somewhat constricted in the centre, approaching to hour-glass shape, with the margin only of the rotules minutely dentate, almost fringed*. I am indebted to my intelligent friend, the able naturalist of Exeter, Mr. E. Parfitt, for having brought to my notice the existence, in the river Exe, of the variety and species of Spongilla above mentioned, where this gentleman found them some time since ; and, he having kindly submitted them (in the dry state, with his own notes of what they were when alive) for my examination and publication, I cannot do better than dedicate the variety to him. The indistinct colour of var. Parjitti may perhaps be attri- buted to the filtering position in which it grows, viz. on the beam of the weir over which the Exe falls at the Salmon-pool, if not also the more spinous state of its spicules generally ; while the position of Sj). fluviatilis^ taken from the Canal and parts of the Exe just above, where Mr. Parfitt found it incrust- ing the stems and leaves of Anacharis and on hard substances respectively, presents not only the usual fawn-colour of Sponges in general, but also a less spinous state of the spicules — per- haps from a less agitated state of the water in which it grows. I still adhere to the term '^ seed-like body," instead of adopting that of " ovary," used by Dr. Bowerbank ; for where, literally, we cannot yet make " head or tail " of an organism, it certainly is premature to designate any part of it by a term which is essentially connected with the true process of genera- tion. Moreover I have already pointed out the identity in structure and composition of the seed-like body of Sj>. Carteri with the winter-egg of the Bryozoaf ; and I am pleased to find just now, by chance, that Meyen, long before this, had * See also Dr. Bowerbank's figures and descriptions, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. Nov. 24, 1863 ; and Ray Soc. publ. t Annals, 1859, vol. iii. p. 331. Mr. H. J. Carter on a Variety of Spongilla Meyeni. 249 stated, " they [the seed-like bodies] are similar to what are denominated the winter-eggs of Polypes"*. I have also lately observed that the seed-like bodies in Sp. Carteri (which Spongilla grows rapidly round the stems of herbaceous plants during the six months that the upper parts of the freshwater tanks in Bombay are filled) are de- veloped towards the periphery, that Sj). 'plumosa developes its seed-like bodies throughout all parts of its structure almost equally, while the three other Bombay species deve- lope theirs respectively chiefly towards the base or first-formed parts. In Prof. James-Clark's paper entitled " Bpongice, ciliatce as Infusoria flagdlata^'' now being republished in the 'An- nals,' the author — after having most carefully examined Leucosolenia [Grantia) hotryoides, Bowerbank, in connexion with a number of flagellate infusoria, both new and old in description — states his " conviction that the true ciliated SjJongice are not Rhizopoda in any sense whatever, nor even closely related to them, but are genuine Q,ova\)Our)A flagellate Protozoal Thus a flagellate infusorium would have to be considered the animal expression of Grantia ; and if it can also be shown that these flagellate infusoria can reproduce their sponges re- spectively, directly or indirectly, by the true process of genera- tion, and that all the sponge-cells which take in food, both ciliated and unciliated, receive it through an oral orifice, and not directly through any part of their bodies, then, so far, the Sponges can be disconnected from the Bhizopoda, and, I expect, generally will have to be regarded in the light in which the sagacious Professor of Natural History in the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania views the Spongi^e ciliatge. Still, if this be shown, I cannot yet see to what extent it could disassociate the Spongiadse from the Rhizopoda, which evidently possess a like power of polymorphism. But Prof. Clark's paper is far too able to justify a hasty conclusion or cursory criticism in any respect ; and therefore this is not the time or place for me to add more than that it appears to possess extraordinary merit, which will be realized the more it is studied by the practical microscopist, who at the same time feels sensible of the duty he is performing towards the public in directing their attention to that end of the scale of organized beings concerning which we are still so profoundly ignorant. P.S. Mr. Parfitt adds that Spongilla fluviatilis is plentiful * Johnston, Brit. Sponges, footnote, p. 164 : 1842, Ann.&Mag.N.Hwt, Scr. 4. Vol.\. 19 250 Prof. H. James-Clark on the Spongise ciliatse in tlie Exe and in the canal near Exeter, throughout the summer months ; but, by attaching itself to plants which die down in the autumn, the specimens are all swept away by the winter floods. XXXIII. — On the Spongiae ciliataB as Infusoria flagellata; or Observations on the Structure, Animality, and Relationship of Leucosolenia botryoides, Bowerhanh. By H. James- Claek, A.B., B.S., Professor of Natural History in the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. [Continued from p. 216.] § 12. Astasia trichophora. Clap. PI. VI. figs. 45, 46. The transition from the mononematous Monas, Godosiga^ Leucosolenia, &c. to those heteronematous Flagellata which possess at the same time a proboscidiform and a gubernacli- form flagellum is most aptly exemplified by that curious mi- metic combination of Amoeba and Anisonema known as As- tasia trichophora, Clap. [TracheUus trichophorus , Ehr.). At first sight it appears to be capable of all the abrupt retrogres- sive motions and short turnings of sa\ Anisonema (figs. 65-69), without being endowed with a similar means of locomotion. One is not long, however, in discovering the homologue of the t7'ail {fl.^) or rudder [guhernaclum) of the latter in the posterior abdominal, triangular prolongation (fig. 45, fl"^) of the body of the former. That this is the true interpretation of the pro- longation is warranted not only by the use to which it is put, as a sort oi point d^ippui during the amoeboid retroversions of the body, but also by its persistent form whilst the animal is contorted into a shapeless writhing mass. In the midst of the paucity of distinctive topography, we are also furnished by this organ, if I may so call it, with a basis of ready discrimi- nation between the practically ventral and dorsal sides of the body ; for, although it may not lie strictly in the central line of progress during reptation (nor could we expect to find it there upon being referred to its homological relation to the asymmetrically attached guhernaclum oi Anisonema) , it none the less belongs to the reptant side of the animal, and, as it were, controls its motions and acts as a keel, upon which the posterior end of the body vibrates and reels from side to side. Finally, in reference to this point, it may be added that this species does not swim, properly speaking, nor has it the cha- racter of the revolving natant forms, such as Dujardin sepa- rated from the Astasia of Ehrenberg and described under the name of Peranema.