SÎAUKOCALYl^TUS AFFINIS. 181 



— taken by me for S. dowUngi. This would suggest its close 

 resemblance to that species and also to S. tuhulosus, a fact which 

 can not be gainsaid. The two specimens differ in certain points 

 of outward appearance but show an essential or almost complete 

 agreement in spiculation. Such differences as exist between them 

 are manifestly referable to difference in individual age and partly 

 also to the different state of their preservation ; so that, I have 

 scarcely a doubt as to their specific identity. I propose to call 

 them S. affinis. 



Each of the two specimens serves greatly to supplement the 

 knowledge to be derived from the other. They will be separately 

 described as regards their macroscopic characters. 



The one I take up first (S. C. M. No. 194, from which all 

 the figures in PI. XIII. are taken), was purchased of a Misaki 

 fisherman in 1891. The locality as put down on the label is 

 Okinose ; depth not stated. The specimen consists of large and 

 small dried fragments which must originally have formed the wall 

 of a tubular or vase-like form, assumably about 300 mm. in heiglit 

 and not less than lOOmm. in diameter. The maximum thickness 

 of the wall is about 9 mm. Owing to imperfect desiccation the 

 texture is soft and loose, the tissues easily falling off in crundjs 

 and shreds. 



The external surface is much abraded. No lateral prostalia, 

 which I presume Avere once present, are preserved. However, 

 the delicate ectosome still remains here and there in small patches. 

 It adheres closely to the choanosomal surface and consists of the 

 usual dermal lacework supported by thin and irregularly intei'seet- 

 ing hypodermal strands (see PI. XIII., fig. 10). The dernial 

 meshes, of approximately quadrate shape, are on an average about 

 165/^ wide. 



