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Show 456 DR. J. s. B O W E R B A N K O N [June 5, Mr. Du Bois, with whom I was hunting last season in the Amaswazi country, and who knows that part of Africa perhaps better than any other man, informs me that a variety of the Buffalo, smaller and with a red tinge on its skin, used to exist along the Bomba hills; and in fact I saw such a skin brought in for sale by one of the natives. The Hon. W. H. Drummond, in his book on the Large Game of South-eastern Africa, says, p. 33, " A herd of Buffalo, or, more correctly speaking, several herds, that exist in a district known as the Umbeka, on the north-east of Zululand, are famed as having a tinge of red in their colour, and as being smaller and more dangerous than any others." June 5, 1877. Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. The following papers were read :- 1. Description of five new Species of Sponges discovered by A. B. Meyer on the Philippine Islands and N e w Guinea, By the late J. S. B O W E R B A N K , F.R.S., F.Z.S.1 [Received May 14, 1876.] 1. OPHLITOSPONGIA MEYERI, sp. nov. Sponge fistulous ; pedicel short and stout. Surface very rugged and tuberculous. Oscula numerous, dispersed within the cloacal cavity. Pores inconspicuous. Dermal membrane spiculous ; ten-sion- spicula acuate, dispersed or subfasciculate, large and stout, same size as those of the skeleton ; retentive spicula bidentate equiancho-rate, very minute and slender, denticuli long, apices obtuse, few in number, dispersed. Skeleton: Fibre rigid, stout and abundantly spiculous; rete irregular and open ; spicula acuate, and a few acerate, stout and rather long ; fibres profusely armed with stout at-tenuato- acuate basally and apically spined internal defensive spicula, projected at nearly right angles and in all directions from the fibres. Interstitial membranes spiculous; spicula same as those of the dermal membrane. Gemmules membranous, spherical or oval, black and opaque. 1 Communicated to the Secretary by Dr. A. B. Meyer, with the subjoined remarks:- " The enclosed paper of the late Dr. Bowerbank on five new sponges from the Philippines and New Guinea was finished June 1876, and was intended by the author for the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society. H e sent the paper over to m e for inspection ; and I returned it, after having added a few notes. H e then became ill and died, without having been able to forward the paper to your address. Dr. Bowerbank's family now return the paper to me, and I forward it to you with the hope that the Society may accept it." |