260 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



cruciate spicules. Sometimes, however, several spicules are fused together, and the origin 

 of the connected siliceous framework of EuplecteUa is thus suggested. The shapes of 

 the numerous free siliceous bodies recall those of Hycdonema sieholdii, Gray, from Japan." 



In the same year (1868) Gray proposed to designate those sponges, which were in 

 every way so different from the known species of Hyalonema, by the new generic title 

 Semperella} Moreover, to a specimen of the same species from the island of Ceram the 

 name Hyalothauma ludekingi was given by Marshall and Herklots. Another sponge 

 belonging to the same species, was sent from the Philippine Island of Zebu through 

 Dr. A. Meyer to the British Museum, and was shortly described by Gray in 1872,^ under 

 the title Meyerella claviformis. Carter gave a detailed analysis of the same specimen,' 

 and he changed the generic name Meyerella which had been given by Gray, into 

 Meyerina because the former had already been applied to one of the Lepidoptera. In 

 regard to the forms of the spicules. Carter regarded the new species as a combination 

 of Carteria, Hyalonema, Holtenia and Pheronema. 



Gray now erected * for this sponge a special family — the Meyerinidse — and character- 

 ised it in the following manner: — " Sponge elongate, tubular, covered with a cobweb- 

 like netted coat, with a circle of tufts of anchoring fibres at the base which extend more 

 than half way through the length of the body, and then by repetition of a shorter kind, 

 are continued on to the apex, where they also form a circle of tufts round the margin of 

 the apical aperture." 



In his first systematic catalogue of the known Hexactiuellida Carter * united Meyerina 

 claviformis, Gray, with Holteyiia and Pheronema into one group. On pi. xiv. he 

 has compared the extremities of the tuft spicules, which are very like the anchors of 

 Holtenia and Meyerina. 



In his Classification of the Spongidfe, published in 1875,'' Carter formed the group of 

 " Birotulifera " in the family of the Sarcohexactinellida, of the genera Hyalonema, 

 Holtema, Meyerina and Laharia. 



The specific agreement of the variously designated forms was first recognised by 

 Marshall, who, in his researches in the Hexactiuellida' in 1875, pointed out that, with 

 exception of the generic name Hyalonema used by Semper, the oldest designation is that 

 of Semperella schultzei, and that this name is therefore entitled to be retained as the 

 proper one. In his accurate and careful description of the two specimens at his 

 command — one of which was found at Ceram and the other at Zebu — Marshall pointed 



1 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. ii. pp. 373-377. 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, ser. 4, vol. x. p. 76, 1872. 



2 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. x. p. 110, 1872. 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. x. p. 134 



5 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. xii. p. 162, 1873. 

 ^ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, ser. 4, vol. xvi. pp. 199, 120. 

 ' Zeitschr.f. leiss. Zool, Bd. sxv., Suppl., pp. 212-225. 



