BENDY CALCAREOUS SPONGES 81 



(3) Oxea ; straight or nearly so, and of nearly uniform diameter, but gradually 

 sharp-pointed at their inner ends ; slender in proportion to their great length. 

 The outer ends are all broken off so that I cannot say what they are like. I 

 have measured the remaining portion of the spicule up to about 1'7 by 0'025 mm. 



This species is not a typical Sycon. In the arrangement of its oxea it much 

 more closely approaches the genus Grantia, from which, however, it must be 

 excluded on account of the absence of a dermal cortex. In the " linked " arrange- 

 ment of the radial chambers it resembles those species included by Jenkin [1908B] 

 in his genus Tenthrenodes, but that genus cannot be maintained [Dendy and 

 Row 1913]. 



Register Number and Locality. III. 4. Off Dwarka. 



2. Grantessa hastifera (Row). (Plate I, Figs. 2, 2a ; Plate II, Figs, la-if".) 

 Grantilla hastifera Row [1909]. 

 Grantessa hastifera Dendy [1913]. 



It is a curious coincidence that this species, first described by my colleague 

 Mr. Row in 1909, and re-described by myself in 1913, in both cases from very 

 inadequate material, should again occur in the present collection. Mr. HornelFs 

 material, however, enables me to add some valuable particulars, especially with regard 

 to the extremely variable external form and the structure of the very remarkable 

 hastate oxea. 



The sponge (Figs. 2, 2a) may be described as consisting of thin lamella?, folded 

 into irregularly tubular or cup-shaped forms ; sometimes forming irregularly proli- 

 ferating masses of larger and smaller tubes (Fig. 2a). The lamella or sponge-wall 

 is about 1*5 mm. in thickness, but the diameter of the tubes or cups varies from 

 about 2 mm. to at least 22 mm. Unfortunately the sponge is very fragile and 

 the material has been much broken up, so that it is difficult to say anything 

 about the oscula, but these appear to be naked and terminal. The larger fragments 

 (Fig. 2) look like thin, concave, irregular shells, but they probably formed parts of cups 

 in life. All the pieces are possibly parts of the same colony, and it is certain that the 

 wide cups give off narrow cylindrical tubes. 



The outer surface is for the most part smooth and subglabrous, but here and there 

 with a few conspicuously projecting spicules. The inner surface (Fig. 2) is pitted by the 

 numerous openings of the short exhalant canals, arranged in groups. The colour in 

 spirit is dirty white. 



The canal system is syconoid, but the material is so badly preserved that it is 

 impossible to make out any details. 



The gastral and dermal cortex are each about 0-14 mm. in thickness. The gastral 

 cortical skeleton is made up of the slender rays of tangential gastral triradiates (Fig. 76) 

 and to a slight extent of the much stouter oral rays of subgastral sagittal triradiates 



