SPONGES. 131 



and there is a great deal to be said in favour of such a proceeding, though it is 

 doubtful whether all of his distinctions can be maintained. Suberites cruciatus, for 

 example, combines certain characters of Topsent's La xosv.be rites and Axosuberites 

 with peculiarities of its own, and I prefer to make use of the old generic name in this 

 instance. 



Suberites cruciatus, n. sp. Plate V., fig. 10. 



Specimen consisting of a number of long, slender, flattened branches, springing from 

 a short pedicel of similar structure to themselves and branching in an almost 

 dichotomous manner, but with some of the branches fusing together again higher up. 

 Total height of specimen about !)1 millims. ; length of pedicel to first fork about 

 14 millims., breadth 3 - 5 millims., thickness 2 millims. : breadth of separate branches 

 about 2'5 millims.: thickness about 1'5 millims. Surface rather uneven, very 

 minutely hispid, and beset with very numerous small rounded translucent areas, 

 apparently pore-areas. Vents probably minute and scattered. Colour (in spirit) pale 

 brown ; consistence soft and very flexible. 



The main skeleton consists of numerous loose bands of tylostyles running lengthwise 

 through the sponge ; with numerous similar spicules scattered between in a loose, 

 irregular reticulation. I have not detected any spongin cement. Towards the surface 

 this arrangement gives place to radiating brushes of tylostyles, whose apices project 

 slightlv beyond the dermal membrane. Between these brushes lie the fairly extensive 

 sub-dermal cavities. 



Spicules. Tylostyli (Plate V., fig. 10), of rather peculiar form. Usually straight, 

 slender, gradually and finely pointed at the apex : with heads usually elongated 

 transversely at a little distance from the base of the spicule, so as to form a cross. 

 This cruciate character is most pronounced in the youngest and slenderest spicules ; 

 in the mature forms the arms of the cross form rounded knobs projecting from the 

 shaft usually at a very slight distance from the base ; occasionally there are three of 

 these knobs instead of two. The full-sized spicules measure about 0"31 millim. by 

 0'005 millim., with head about 0'0093 millim. across. 



The shape of the tylostyle in this curious little sponge reminds one of the 

 corresponding spicule in Carter's Hymedesmia spinatostellifera (4). 



RN. 315 (Stat, L.V., outside Periya Paar, 24 fathoms). 



Family: CHONDEOSIID^E. 



Corticate Astromonaxonellida with complex canal system and small flagellate 

 chambers. Without megascleres. 



These sponges appear to be Astromonaxonellida in which the megascleres (and in 

 the case of Chondrosia the microscleres also) have been lost by degeneration. Their 

 strongly developed cortex and complex canal system show that they are not primi- 

 tively simple forms like the Myxospongida, and, as the megascleres probably passed 



s 2 



