44 PORIFERA. II. 



The generic name Asbestopluma was used for the first time in 1882 by Ray Lankester, 

 who, in a paragraph Dredging in the Norwegian Fjords (Nature XXVI, 478) under the sponges 

 mentions Asbestopluma (a new genus of Norman) . As, however, it was nowhere described, nothing 

 was known of it. In 1901 Top sent, however (Resultats du Voy. du S. Y. Belgica, Spongiaires, 23) 

 has rendered an account of the genus and given a description of it on the basis of a preparation from 

 Norman, and then it turned out that Norman had established the genus Asbestopluma on the species 

 Cladorliiza pennatula of O.Schmidt 1 ). Now Topsent thinks, and, no doubt, justly, that sufficient 

 characters are found to justify the keeping of the genus, which will comprise the symmetrical, Clado- 

 rhiza-Mke forms which are not, as Cladorliiza , provided with ancorae, but with palmate auisochelae. 

 Topsent, however, wants the genus to be interpreted as a sub-genus of Cladorliiza, only separated 

 from it by the mentioned character. I, on the other hand, regard the genus, exactly on account of its 

 chelae, as most closely allied to Mycale, and therefore I place it just after Mycale as an independent 

 genus. It will comprise all the symmetrical forms, hitherto referred to Esperelia, with small anisochelse 

 of the characteristic type more thoroughly mentioned under the different species, either alone or together 

 with other forms of microsclera. 



Thus the genus is well characterized both with regard to its outer form, its skeletal structure, 

 and its spiculation ; but at the same time it, especially with regard to its outer form and spiculation, 

 divides into three groups that seem to me so strongly marked, that I think it most correct to establish 

 three subgenera for these groups. 



Asbestopluma Norman s. str. 

 Penniform, lateral branches issuing biserially from an axis, or with la feral branches all round, 

 often, however, showing a distinct bilaterality. The skeleton a spicula-axis divided into parallel fibres 

 or fibre-like farts, in which axis the fibres supporting the lateral branches are inserted. The stalk is 

 coated with a layer containing particular spicules. Spicula: Megasclera styli and subiylostyli, the former in 

 the axial fibres, the latter in the lateral branches, and further irregularly sinuous, minutely spined tylo- 

 styli or tylostrongyla in the coating of the stalk; microsclera: the characteristic anisochelcs palmalce are 

 small, the alee of the larger end pass far down towards the opposite end, which is narrow; further always 

 rigmata and often large anisochelcs palmatte. 



1. A. pennatula O. Schmidt. 



PI. II, Figs. 1— 6. PI. X, Figs. 4a— o, 5—7. 



1875. Cladorliiza pennatula O. Schmidt, Jahresber. der Commiss. zur wissensch. Unters. deutsch. Aleere in 



Kiel fiir 1872 — 73, 1875, 119, Taf. 1, Fig. 14 — 16. 



1882. Cladorliiza bihaviatifera Vosmaer, Niederl. Arch, fiir Zoologie, Suppl. Band I, 47, PI. I, figs. 105 — 112. 



1885. Espcria bihamatifcra Armauer Hansen, The Norwegian North-Atlantic-Exp. XIII, Spongiadae, 



partim, 15, PI. Ill, fig. 7, PI. IV, fig. 2, PI. VII, figs. 5 and 14. 



*) Topsent 1. c. tells that the preparation of Norman had the inscription < Asbestopluma pennatula Schultze , but 

 he thinks, and, no doubt, justly, that this is a slip of the pen for pennatula Schmidt. 



