330 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



trella. Dorypleres might be revived for other species without small 

 oxeas and in which the megascleres are scattered without order. 

 Jaspis would be retained for species with small oxeas. 



Kirkpatrick (1903, p. 239) includes a species, J. (Coppatias) 

 vaculifer in which the microscleres are not euasters but microstron- 

 gyles. These are usually centrotylote and form a compact dermal 

 layer. Kirkpatrick regards them as modified euasters. While this is 

 probably so, the inclusion of the species disturbs further the homo- 

 geneity of Jaspis, and it would seem better to make it the type of a 

 new genus. 



JASPIS SERPENTINA, new species. 



Plate 38, fig. 6 ; plate 47, fig. 11. 



A specimen from station D5414. 



Sponge essentially lamellate, but rising from an attached base so as 

 to form a shallow more or less circular but irregular cup. Surface, 

 especially that of the cup-cavity, uneven with depressions and 

 thickenings, some of the depressions extending quite through the 

 sponge. The inner surface of the cup is the oscular, the outer surface 

 the pore face of the sponge. Cup 85-100 mm. wide; lamella 7-15 

 mm. thick. Sponge compact and firm. Color whitish gray. 



Plan of the afferent system: Pores, 30-40 \l in diameter, are dis- 

 tributed in small, closely set areas over the outer face of the sponge. 

 The areas are rounded or irregular, and include, often, 3-6 pores or 

 sometimes twice that number. From the pore areas afferent canals 

 pass into the interior. These connect sometimes with tangentially 

 extending spaces lying not far below the surface, but there is no ex- 

 tensive development of subdermal spaces. 



Plan of the efferent system : Main canals, about 0.5 mm. in diam- 

 eter, pass more or less radially and at considerable intervals, from the 

 interior towards the inner surface of the cup-like body. They con- 

 nect with a peripheral system of spaces, lying about 200 \i below 

 this (the oscular) surface, and large enough to be seen with the eye. 

 From these, short oscular canals, sometimes only the direct prolonga- 

 tions of main efferent canals, proceed to the surface. The oscula 

 are minute, 100-500 ^ in diameter, and are scattered abundantly 

 over the inner surface of the cup. 



The ectosome of both surfaces is lighter in color than the interior, 

 and something over 0.5 mm. thick. The difference in respect to the 

 canal system between the ectosomal regions of the two surfaces 

 (pore and oscular) of the sponge is easily seen in gross sections. 



/Spicules. — 1. Small oxeas (pi. 47, fig. 11, &), sharp-pointed, evenly 

 tapering, very slightly curved; commonly ranging from 60 by 3 to 

 350 by 8 y., but reaching a length of 500 jjl. The ectosome on both sur- 

 faces of the sponge is thickly packed with these spicules, which are 



