50 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGEE. 



Verongia hirsuta{V) or Verongia tenuissiina {Vj , I yet incline to the belief that they 

 stand in no connexion with the sponge organism. 



Coheir. — Sandstone yellowish-grey. 



Habitat. — Bahia, shallow water. 



In addition to the well-marked Spongelidse just described, there are in the Challenger 

 collection three specimens probably belonging also to the family in question, but so very 

 badly preserved that there are no soft parts on their skeleton. I believe it advisable 

 to abstain entirely from their detailed description. I think that an undescribed form is 

 of greater profit to science than a form described insufiiciently for subsequent recognition. 

 I believe the sponges just mentioned belong to the Spougelidse, but the question 

 whether a sponge belongs to this or that family in the Keratosa cannot be decided from 

 the properties of the skeleton alone. Again I cannot describe them only as species ; the 

 external shape plays a great part in the specific description, luit the exterior of the 

 sponge is influenced by the properties of its soft parts, and these as mentioned before are 

 entirely absent. An entire abstinence from any description seems to me therefore to 

 be the best plan. 



Family Spongid^e. 



Spongiadm and Hirciniadce, Gray, 1867. 



Bibulida and Hircinida (e.;;.), Carter, 1875. 



Spongiadm (e.p.), Hirciniadce {e.p.), and Phyllospongiadm, Hyatt, 1877. 



Spongidm and Hircinidce, F. E. Schuize, 1879. 



Keratosa with small hemispherical flagellated chambers, communicating by means of 

 numerous pores with inhalent, by means of special canals with exhalent, cavities. 

 Axis of fibres thin ; ground-mass in the neighbourhood of the flagellated chambers 

 granulated. 



Coscinoderma, Carter. 



Spongidae with skeletal fibres admitting of no distinction into primar}^ and secondary 

 ones. 



Coscinoderma confragosum, n. sp. 



" Battledore-shaped, covered with a white continuous cribriform incrustation ; surface 

 even, with fibres almost uniformly alike in size and colour, viz., very small and fine, very 

 long, scantily branched, curled up together in little whorls, of a deep sponge colour." 

 In these words Mr. Carter ^ characterises his genus Coscinoderyna, and together with it 

 his species lanuginosum. The species I am about to describe agrees very well with that 

 description, but presents the following difi'erences. When bisected longitudinally the 



1 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5., vol. xii. p. 309, 1883. 



