404 HYATT'S REVISION OF THE 



not so great as in Aplyslna ccrophoha, the animal matter being sustained more fully by 

 the skeleton. 



Key West, in shallow water. Color unknown. Soc. Coll. 



APLYSINID^. 



This family may be characterized by the regular net-like anastomosis of the fibres, the 

 tendency of this to occur in the same plane, the flatness of the fibres, and the thinness of 

 their walls. 



Aplysixa Nardo. 



Evenor Duch. et Mich. 

 Aplysina (pars) Schmidt. 



This interesting genus was first described in the Isis for 18.3-3 as Aplysia by Nardo, who 

 changed the name to Aplyslna in 1834. Schmidt identifies the Florida specimen, described 

 on the following page, as the Aplyslna oerophoha Nardo, a Me literranean form However 

 this miy ba, thare is ona expression in Schmidt's description of the true Aplysbia oero- 

 phoha of the Mediterranean which seems to settle, at any rate, the true, generic name of the 

 Florida specimens described below.^ He describes the peculiar network and says that, in 

 this respect, the genus differs from all others. The peculiar structure is due to the anasto- 

 mosing of the fibres at regular intervals and in the same plane, thus forming a net work with 

 a mesh, which may be either regular or very variable in size.^ The net-like walls thus 

 formed anastomose with each other at intervals of greater or less extent according to the 

 species ; in some species forming elongated cells, and in others angular cells like those of a 

 honey-comb ; or better still, they may be compared closely with Porites, as Ellis and Solander 

 have done in their plates of Aplysina cellulosa. The genus Evenor as described by 

 Duchaissing and Michelotti either belongs to this genus or is a new genus intermediate 

 between this and Dendrospongia. It is, of course, impossible to say anything positively 

 because the authors have given so little besides the mere external characteristics of the 

 skeleton and living sponge. These, so far as they go, indicate a species of Aplysina, which 

 differs in form, and perhaps in the skeletal characteristics, from all others yet described. 



Aplysina aurea Hyatt. 



This reuiarkable species is described by Dr. Palmer as having a brilliant gamboge yel- 

 low color when living ; but when dried it is of the same purplish black, though of a some- 

 what lighter shade, as in the preceding species. In drying it shrinks excessively" and will, 

 according to Palmer, unless frequently turned, melt into a solid mass, losing entirely its 

 natural aspect. The dried specimens show quite a complete series from the young, which 

 are single, short, fistulose tubes, to those six or seven inches long, composed of more or less 

 irregularly shaped masses of similar conical tubes. The aspect of the dried specimen is 

 quite similar to the figure of the dried Spomjla fenestrata Duch. et Mich., but this is 

 described as black when living. The meshes of the net-work of the fibres are exceedingly 



l"DIe Fasern sind stark, ziemlich elastisch und bilden cin ilirem Bau nach siiid sic total von dcnea der anderen Gat- 

 unregelmUssIgcs, ziemlicli weitlaufiges Maschenwerk. Sclioii tungcn verscbleden." 



2 PI. 13, figs. 12-U. 



