224 



THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Habitat. — Between north of Scotland and Faroe Islands (Carter, Schulze) ; Grenada 

 (Schmidt) ; Southern Ocean (Challenger) ; south of Nova Scotia (Challenger) ; Bahia 

 (Challenger). 



Stylocordyla stipitata, var. glohosa, Ridley and Dendy (PI. XLIII. fig. 10). 



1886. Stylocordyla stipituta, var. glohosa, Eidley and Dendy, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 



ser. 5, vol. xviii. p. 489. 



We unite under the above name a large series of specimens from Kerguelen Island 

 and three small ones from Station 145. This variety is distinguished from the types of 



Fig. 9.— Stylocordyla stijntnia, var. glohosa. Sections showing the arrangement of the skeleton. A, longitudinal section 

 of a specimen which exhibits no spiral arrangement of the fibres, x 6. A', transverse section of do., x 4. B, transverse 

 section of a specimen in which the fibres are spirally disposed, x 4 ; o, osculura ; c, cortical spicules ; a, stem ; cm, 

 central mass of spicules derived from the breaking up of the stem ; s, sections of do. ; r/, the radiating skeletal fibres. 



the species by the almost perfectly globular, bullet-like head of the adult sponge (PI. 

 XLIII. fig. 10), which, though it may become slightly oval, never exhibits the truncated 

 appearance shown by adult specimens of the typical form, and never possesses a whorl of 

 projecting spicules below the osculum, the entire surface of the head being evenly and 

 minutely hispid. The stem also is not nearly so thick and fleshy-looking as in Carter's 

 larger specimens, and has not nearly so large a conical basal expansion ; as in the types, 

 there are a number of fine attaching rootlets. We know of no characters by which it 

 would be possible to distinguish the young forms of the variety from those of the si^ecies 

 proper. 



The remarkable spiral arrangement of the skeleton in the head of this sponge has 



