lO PORIFERA. I. 



Chalina Grant. 



Form someivhat varying^ often digitate and more or less branclied^ or leafs/taped. Fibres icni- 

 spiciilar or at all events z\.ntli quite Jew spit /lies ; spongin variously developed^ often copious. 



I. Ch. oculata Pallas. 

 PI. VIII, Fig. 7. 



1766. Spotigia oculata Pallas, Eleiich. zooph}t., 390, 239. 



1767. Spongia dichotorna Linn., Syst. Nat. Ed. XII, 1299, 14. 

 1776. — — MuUer, Zool. Dan. Prodrom., 256, 3088. 



1842. Halichondria oculata Johnston, Hist. Brit. Spong., 94, 2, PI. Ill, figs, i and 2. 



1864. Chalina oculata Bowerbank, Mon. Brit. Spong. I, 208, PI. XIII, fig. 262; II, 361; III, 169, PI. LXVI, 



figs- 1—3- 

 1887. Euchalinopsis oculata Lendenfeld, Zool. Jahrb., II, 815, i. 



1893. — — Levinsen, Det vidensk. Udbytte af Kanonbaaden Hanchs Togter, 418, 15. 



1896. C/ialina oculata Lambe, Sponges from the Atl. coast of Canada. Transact. Roy. Soc. of Canada, 



Ser. II, Vol. II, Sect. 4, 184, Tab. I, fig.s. 2, 2 a. 



Of this species I have, from the territory treated of here, only two specimens; one is a little, 

 nnbranched, presumably young specimen of a length of 30'""'; it has a well marked stalk, 9™'" long 

 and very thin; the other specimen is larger, of a height of 85™"'; it is branched and is upon the whole 

 of the typical form. The skeleton., arranged in the usual wa)-, is chiefly unispicular, but also poh- 

 spicular fibres are found towards the middle of the branches; but they contain onl)' few spicules. In 

 specimens from the Danish seas, howewer, polyspicular fibres may be seen in greater numbers, so that 

 most of the primar)- fibres are polyspicular; but also here the number of spicules is only small. Thus 

 the species is somewhat varying with regard to this character, and therefore it is on the border between 

 Chalina and Pacliychalina^ between which two genera no quite distinct limit can be drawn. The 

 spongin is in the present specimen rather strongl}- developed, so that most frequently a distinct spongin- 

 sheath is found round the spicules; also the transverse fibres are most frequently quite surrounded 

 by a layer of spongin, however thin. The distance between the fibres is on an average ca. 01""". 

 Spicula are slightly curved, more rarely straight oxea, evenh- and rather gradually tapering. They 

 are more varying in length than is commonly the case, from o-i2 — 0-178'""', and the thickness varies 

 from about 0'Oo8 — 0-013™™; a few of the largest needles are found with a thickness of up to o-ois™"; 

 but the longest needles are not always the thickest ones; an average size of ca. 0-149'"'" in length and 

 a thickness of o-oii""" is by far the most common. Besides these needles which on account of the 

 proportion between length and thickness convey an impression of being fully developed, some finer and 

 quite fine needles are found measured to a length of from 0-08 — 0-13'"'". Some few st)li may be found. 



Locality: Vestmanhavnsfjord in the Faroe Islands, dejjth ca. 70 fathoms, a little nnbranched 

 specimen (Th. Mortensen); the \'estman Islands, depth unknown, one specimen (Ssemundsson). 



Geogr. distrib. This species seems to be very widely spread, almost cosmopolitan; it is frequent 

 at the coasts of England (Bowerbank), in the English Channel at the French coast and at the southern 

 point of Britany at Croisic (Topsent), as also along the western coast of Jutland (Levinsen); on the 



