REPORT ON THE HEXACTINELLIDA. 335 



Genus 4. Fieldingia, Sav. Kent (PI. XCVIL). 



1870. Saville Kent, Ann. and Mag. Nat Hist., ser. 4, vol. vi. p. 219. 

 1876. Marshall, Zeitschr. f. wi.'^s. Zool., Bd. xxvii. \\ 124. 



History. — On a specimen of Lopfiohelia prolifoxi, vnr. antJiophyllites, which was 

 dredged ten miles off the sliore of Cezimbra, Portugal, from a depth of 500 fathoms, 

 Saville Kent found' in 1870 a Hexactinellid, distinguished by a pustulate rind of fine 

 recticulatcd laminiB and numerous spherical internal bodies, varying in diameter from 

 "SIT to j^ of an inch. He named it Fieldingia in honour of Mr. Edward Fielding, 

 adding the specific name of lagettoides, in reference to the delicate reticulate laminae 

 associated with the cortex, which are so strongly suggestive of the internal lace-like 

 layers in the bark of the lace-bark tree. His brief diagnosis of the new form was : — 

 " Sponge adherent, consisting of a cortex of irregular reticulated spicula, having on its 

 interior surface numerous reticulated laminae of extremely delicate consistence. Common 

 cavity of the sponge containing numerous spherical aggregations of spicular reticulations ; 

 these invested and brought into relation with the cortex by loose reticulated fibres of 

 coarser structure, having a general hexradiate arrangement ; these fibres cylindrical, and 

 to a considerable extent minutely and erectly spined ; frequently attached to them very 

 diminutive spicula of the ' rectangulated hexradiate ' type, these also minutely and 

 erectly spined. Nutritive and exhalent functions most probably performed through the 

 general reticulations of the cortex." 



Marshall, who in 1876 ranked' Fieldingia along with Aphrocallistes as "aberrant 

 forms " among his Pleionacida?. suggested that the form was probably a young 

 A'plirocallistes. 



Fieldingia lagettoides, Sav. Kent (PI. XCVIL). 



The drawing on PI. XCVII. fig. 1 represents in its natural size one of the two 

 dried specimens which were trawled by the Challenger oft" Little Ki Island (Station 192, 

 lat. 5° 49' 15" S., long 132' 14' 15" E.), in 140 fathoms, on blue mud ground. The 

 surface of the knob-Hke specimens, which are as large as a walnut, consists in the 

 perfectly intact regions of a strong external rind, associated with adherent granules of 

 sand and other foreign l^odies. The rind appears here and there somewhat blistered and 

 almost spongy, and consists of several lamellae of a very narrow meshed and irregular 

 network. An irregular framework of strong siliceous beams with partly square meshes 

 (from 1 to 3 mm. in width) extends from the rind across the lumen. This framework of 

 beams exhibits numerous thick spherical knots about 1 mm. in diameter, and with tolcr,il)ly 



■ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hift., ser. 4, vol. vi. p. 219. 

 ' Zcitschr.f. xoiss. Zool., Bil. x.wii. p. 124. 



