File:Transactions and proceedings and report of the Philosophical Society of Adelaide, South Australia (1918) (14765675404).jpg

Identifier: transactionsproc4243phil (find matches)
Title: Transactions and proceedings and report of the Philosophical Society of Adelaide, South Australia
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Philosophical Society of Adelaide, South Australia
Subjects: Philosophical Society of Adelaide, South Australia Science
Publisher: Adelaide : The Society
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
rcelain spear-head is produced, behind which the horny tube-like stemwidens by the addition of an extra flute, ultimately becominga distinct branch. In one or two instances a single stalk hasbranched six times and been furnished with six spear-heads. These side branches are of a considerable length,often several times the length of the spear-headed • apex. Lbelieve the branches do not again bifurcate, although theyappear to do so, due to the fact that threeor four of thesestalks come through the same aperture in the girdle, usuallyside by side rather than in a circle, as do the spicules inAcanthoehitons. The tubes, or coarse hairs, are pale horn-colour, highlypolished, as if varnished, transversely striated; in some casesthe striae are near together, but more usually formingsomewhat distant rings for the whole length of the tube. Ina few instances these striae are absent; in others the sulcaeare broader and placed at greater distances, suggestive ofsegments or the knodes of a plant.
Text Appearing After Image:
65 The spear-heads vary a good deal, both in size and shape.Some are long and lanceolate, sharply pointed ; others areglobose and blunt; many are oblique, slightly scimitar-shaped; all are equally white and glossy. As before stated, the longer hairs, or tubes, take theirrise in clusters fairly equidistant midway across thegirdle, and are placed opposite the strange finger-like pro-cesses, those nearest the shell measuring up to 4 mm. inlength, but becoming shorter and shorter as the margin ofthe girdle is approached until along the centres of the finger-like processes they are nearly all unstalked, and form a closely-packed row of porcelainous spear-heads, some still partlyburied in the girdle. Along the front of the finger-like pro-cesses the spear-heads are small and scattered, not adhering tothe mid-line, as is the case further back. To the question, What is the function of the strangecoarse hairs, or tubes, and their peculiar apices, and whatpurpose do they serve ? I can find no d

Note About Images