REPORT ON THE HEXACTINELLIDA, 207 



The long basalia of the root-tuft which I examined in the small specimen (PI. XXIX. 

 fig. 4) exhibit opposite or spirally disposed, obliquely projecting ledges with marginal 

 teeth, like those which M. Schultze has figured in Hijalonema sieboldii in his well-known 

 work (Taf. ii. fig. 4). The extreme distal end of the long basalia was not preserved. 



5. Hijalonema lentii, 0. Schmidt (PI. XXX. figs. 9-17). 



In his Spongien des Mcerbusens von Mexico, 0. Schmidt describes (p. 65), under 

 the designation Asconema kentii, a Hexactinellid which was dredged at various localities 

 off Grenada, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Bequia, from depths of 300 to 1500 fathoms. 

 This form occurred in two varieties, on the one hand, as a " flat or shallow bowl, either 

 rounded off inferiorly or furnished with a short or somewhat irregularly twisted pointed 

 stalk," and on the other, as " a saccular form with irregular margin, divided internally 

 into irregular pouch-like divisions and cavities, separated by thin ragged partitions." 

 "A delicate outer layer with fir-tree-like Sfiicules, extends like a fine ved over the 

 surface. The body is unusually rich in double verticils (Do^jpelquirrlen), occurring in 

 very varied dimensions and forms in the several parts of the body." As my esteemed 

 fellow worker in Strassburg was kind enough to give me for examination a dried 

 specimen of the goblet-type, I am able to include this beautiful form in the series of 

 species of Hyalonema. A figure, drawn from a photograph, represents the sponge of the 

 natural size. Both the external and the concave superior and internal surface of the loose 

 cup- or funnel-shaped body are covered by a delicate reticulate membrane. On the outer 

 wall this network is much finer and more uniform than on the concave upper surface, 

 where it seems to form a sieve with unequal, and in some case«, large meshes. It is 

 either attached to the subjacent body parenchyma, or extends freely across the large 

 cavities. On the superior external margin there is, as 0. Schmidt pointed out, a cuff- 

 like fringe of fine spicules. 



The loose parenchyma of the sponge is supported by numerous straight or curved 

 smooth oxydiacts, with or without rudiments of the four abortive transverse rays, and 

 by smooth, simple, medium-sized oxyhexacts, which frequently exhibit a slight roughness, 

 and are furnished either with straight or with curved rays as represented in PI. XXX. figs. 

 14, 15. It is noteworthy that the oxydiacts are generally thin and often so long that 

 they become readily curved, not unfrequently appearing much bent or even coiled. 



The h}'podermal oxj-pentacts are perfectly smooth. Their tangential rays are 

 mutually apposed and form a beautiful rectangular mcshwork. To these rays are 

 attached a great number of autodermal pinuli, with four straight, somewhat substantial, 

 basal rays which are comparatively short, conically pointed, and either quite smooth 

 or equipped terminally with minute distaUy directed teeth. The distal i-ay, on the 

 other hand, measures about 0*45 mm. in length, is smooth at the l^ase, but elsewhere 



