REPORT ON THE MONAXONIDA. '225 



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already been noted by earlier authors. It is extremely well shown in the present variety, 

 and we have thought it desirable to give a woodcut illustrative of it {vide woodcut, 

 Fig. 9, B). This has been executed for us by Mi-. Highley with his usual skill and 

 accuracy, and renders further description unnecessary. It is, however, important to notice 

 that in one of the specimens examined by us the skeleton was simply radiate, without 

 any spiral twist at all ; this is also shown in the figure (Fig. 9, A, A') contrasting strongly 

 with the normal spiral arrangement. We must also note that this particular specimen 

 contained large quantities of embryos in various stages of development ; it is just possible 

 that these two facts may be correlated, but it is very difiicult to see how. 



There are in the collection no less than fifty-three specimens which we refer to this 

 variety ; they vary much in size ; the largest has a stem 75 mm. long, surmounted by a 

 head about 17 mm. in diameter. We have never found more than a single osculum, 

 which is situated at the top of the head. The specimens are in an exceUent state of 

 preservation and details as to their minute anatomy and histology will be found in the 

 Introduction. 



Neither in specimens of the species proper nor yet of the variety have we detected 

 any branching of the stem, and this character, as well as those of the spiculation, &c., 

 distinguishes Stylocordyla stipitata, Carter, from Suberites ramulosa, nobis, which 

 somewhat resembles it in external form. 



Localities.— Btsition 145, December 27, 1873; lat. 46° 43' 0" S., long. 38" 4' 30" E.; 

 dejjth, 140 fathoms; bottom, volcanic sand. Three small specimens. 



Off Kerguelen ; depth, 10 to 100 fathoms. Fifty specimens. 



Genus Quasillina, Norman. 



1869. Quasillina, Norman, Last Report on Dredging among the Shetland Isles, Brit. Assoc. Rep. for 1868, p. 329. 

 1875. Bursalina, Schmidt, Jahresb. d. Comm. wiss. Untersuch. d. deutsch. Meere, Jahrg. ii., iii. p. 116. 



Sponge corticate, stipitate, with oval body, bearing a single osculum at the summit, 

 and short stalk. In the cortex primary skeleton fibres ascend in parallel lines from the 

 base, crossed at right angles by secondary ones. Spicules, large and small styli. 



Dr. Norman's diagnosis runs as foUows : — " Sponge consisting of a single elavate 

 hoUow body, widening upwards from the base, and rising at once from the surface of the 

 stone to which it is attached, without any expanded basal mass. Skeleton beautifuU}' 

 reticulate, primary fasciculi ascending in parallel straight lines from the base, and in 

 diverging, radiating lines from a central mammaeform projection at the summit of the 

 sponge ; secondary fasciculi at right angles to the primary ones. Spicula fusiformi-acuate." 



We cannot agree with Bowerbank in placing the species Quasillina brevis in the genus 

 Polymastia ; it appears to us to difi"er from it very widely, and Dr. Norman has done good 

 service in erecting a new genus for its reception. Schmidt cannot have been aware of 



(zooL. OHALL. EXP. — PAET Lix. — 1887.) Nnn 29 



