396 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



and in which there is a well developed dermal reticulation of spicu • 

 lar fiber (Dendy 19166, p. 113). 



The simplicity of the skeleton makes it difficult to pick out what 

 racial differences may exist in Halichondria, and perhaps H. pani- 

 cea, as employed to-day, is a conglomerate, which will be analyzed 

 as we learn more about the structural details of individuals in dif- 

 ferent parts of the world. This appears to be the attitude of Hent- 

 schel (1914, p. 135). 



HALICHONDRIA VARIABILIS Lindgren. 



Ilalichondria variabilis Lindoren. 1S98, p. 285. 



Lindgren's species (1898, p. 285) was based on sponges from 

 Cochin China and Java. The basal part of the body sends up finger- 

 like processes; spicules of interior partly strewn irregularly, partly 

 combined in tracts; ectosomal tracts, 3-4 spicules thick, support 

 small, sharp dermal conuli, projecting beyond the apices of the 

 latter. Surface of sponge everywhere " granulated " by the conuli. 

 Oxea, 720 by 16 [x, gradually pointed. 



Hentschel (1912, p. 408) refers to this species a specimen from the 

 Aru Islands, agreeing in habitus as well as in the other features with 

 Lindgren's types. The oxeas are slender, 520-1160 \k long. 



The spicules and their arrangement in the interior would scarcely 

 mark off this species from H. panicea, but the small sharp dermal 

 conules, supported by more or less radial ectosomal spicular tracts, do. 

 This I conceive to be the distinguishing mark of the species along 

 with spicules of the same type as in H. panlcea. The irregularity in 

 the curvature of the oxea to which Lindgren calls attention, and 

 which Hentschel found was common in the larger spicules of his 

 specimen, is slight as Lindgren's figure (1898, pi. 19, fig. 1) shows. 

 The habitus too is probably only a local feature. 



To this species may be referred a specimen from station D5414. 

 The sponge is a bar-shaped, somewhat flattened, mass, rising from an 

 enlarged base; total height 150 mm., width 25 to 40 mm. Oscula 

 4-5 mm. in diameter with some smaller ones, numerous; chiefly along 

 one of the narrow sides of (he bar. extending thence on to the base 

 and the upper extremity. Large canals of about the diameter of the 

 oscula are present in the interior of the sponge. The surface shows 

 conspicuous, tangential, subdermal canals. 1-2 mm. wide, each with 

 some surrounding collenchyma. These canals are about 5 mm. apart 

 and combine with one another, forming more or less of a connected 

 reticulum. Such canals occur in specimens of H. panicea, and 

 Dendy calls attention to them in H. reticulata Boer (1916&, p. 113). 

 They are especially developed in the Albatross specimen. 



The small sharp conules, characteristic of the species, are about 

 1 mm. apart. In addition, the surface exhibits a feature, to which 



