72 AE,T. 7. — T. TJIMA : HEXACTINELLIDA, IV. 



specimens. The grounds may be said to he the same as those 

 tVom which came both C mei/eri and C. meyeri tuberom. As- 

 snmably the three forms thrive under different physical condi- 

 tions of the bottom, and the possibility can certainly not be 

 excluded that they represent what Bidder has recently called 

 " the metamps." 



Subspecies rvgom is shaped much like tvherosa but is char- 

 acterized by the fact that the external surface of the body pro- 

 per, except close to the thin oscular margin, is extremely uneven 

 on account of numerous wrinkle-like ridges and other irregular 

 ])rominences. The sponge may grow to a respectable size, measur- 

 ing 320 mm. in height, as attested by one specimen in the Sei. 

 Coll. (JNlus. No. Ö03, from Okinose). In that specimen the stalk 

 length is about equal to only one-fourth of the total height ; it 

 broadens above to an unusual extent, so as to assume an inverted 

 cDnical sluipe. The body proper is unfortunately much shrunk 

 and jiartly destroyed. 



Very well preserved are the two S2)ecimens shown in PI. V., 

 figs. 14 and lo, and hence they may be taken as models for 

 description. Though they are about the smallest I have had, 

 the height measures nearly 240 mm. in l)oth. The stalk is 

 nearly as long as the body, near the small and irregular attach- 

 ment disc is about as thick as one's finger and gradually thick- 

 ens above towards the junction with the body. It is throughout 

 compact-looking, being partly covered by a dense coating of der- 

 mal s])icules which easily f;ill off, and partly firmly felt-like on 

 account of the exposed parenchymal fibers that run in the main 

 longitudinally. Tengthwise it is more or less prominently ril)bed 

 in the upper part, the ribs passing above into the superficial 

 irregularities of the l)ody proper. 



